


Dirty Money

by Lobb



Category: RWBY
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe, Anal Sex, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Breastplay, Condoms, Cougars, Dominance, Drama, F/M, Feel Bad Sex, Fingerfucking, Gen, Jaune is a Gigolo, Jaune is a Sad Boi, Jaune-centric, M/M, Multi, Oral Sex, Prostitution, Self-Destruction, Spanking, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:34:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21553957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lobb/pseuds/Lobb
Summary: Jaune Arc had to find a way to cope.  A chance meeting at a bar before they left for Anima introduced him to something he would have never dreamed of...And now he has to keep it a secret from his REALLY overprotective friends.
Relationships: Jaune Arc/Blake Belladonna, Jaune Arc/Lie Ren, Jaune Arc/Willow Schnee
Comments: 44
Kudos: 210





	1. Bump n' Grind

**AN:** Blame NoOne for putting this weird idea in my head.

**Dirty Money**

**Prologue**

**Bump and Grind**

She was a brunette Faunus, a feline of some kind- and didn’t that conjure thoughts up into his head that definitely needed to stay there?- from the cute little pointed ears that perked and twitched as she laid in the bed, looking exhausted as he pulled his shirt back on. She was covered in a sheen of sweat that would have only intensified the rich olive tone to her skin, probably not a Mistralian native if he was to take a guess- but the fact she’d paid his “retainer” and met him in a nicer hotel said she must have been a vacationer of some kind.

He hadn’t seen signs of a ring, either- another rule he’d long since established. If someone was better at hiding it than others? Well, that wasn’t his business.

He wasn’t doing this to ruin relationships, he told himself. Just to . . . have some control again. And in this case, it was more pleasure than business. Running into Cinder had made him more  **intense** than he’d been before. The flooded condoms strewn all around the hotel room said at least that much.

He didn’t see anything wrong with it, from the way the woman laid on the bed looked as satisfied as a cat catching a canary- and if that thought was racist, he’d ignore it for the moment.

“That was…” She uttered, and he let out a soft little laugh in turn.

“You’re welcome. And thank you.” He noted, leaning over to rake his fingers through her hair and brush some of her long bangs out of her face, seeing the slitted amber eyes that only made things  **worse** for him mentally, but pushed it out of his thoughts as she grasped his wrist and brought his thumb to her lips, locking them tight around the digit and giving a longing, hungry  **suck.**

“Mhn, will you be in Mistral still next week?” He shook his head in response, blonde hair flashing in his vision as he did so.

“I’m leaving, tomorrow actually.” He wouldn’t tell her where- personal details were to be hidden away, he’d learned that by now. “But, I hope I made your stay in Mistral all the more pleasant.”

“Pleasurable.” She assured him, and he only let his lips curl into a cocky smirk he knew enticed the older women he often ended up seeing. They liked young meat, or so he’d learned. Especially when they got to feel like Goddesses, or just like they were still beautiful.

Not that he’d treat anyone as lesser regardless. It just so happened that he tended to wind up getting contracted by older women- or the occasional older man- who saw him and wanted to feel like the body that . . .  _ she _ had helped him build could be theirs, if only for a little while. “If you’re ever in Vacuo-” She started, and he shushed her with a finger to her lips.

“You’ll know.” If he did, he had no plans to go hunting down old clients. This was business, and it was important to make that obvious, especially with lonely older women. Her lips closed around his finger again, and it was plain to see that she was aching for more, even if he had a feeling she couldn’t handle anymore of his treatment of the evening.

If she happened to see him again and make the offer, then he could deal with it. Right then, he was still a Huntsman on a mission. This was just-

It was just business. Just his own way of coping.

As she let out a mewl of disappointment, he could only smile. The power of that primal part of his body that flooded his ego and made him feel  _ strong _ even though he should have felt anything but.

As he stepped from the hotel room into the hall, he took a moment to brush his fingers through his mussed blonde hair, making sure his appearance was presentable- and ignoring the look of the house staff wandering down the hall- before he headed towards the elevator.

The ride down to the lobby, and then the steps out into the cool air of Mistral’s city streets gave him time to wrap his head around the excuses he’d probably have to supply to Ren and Nora when he got back to Haven. Flush with a pocket full of lien chits, he fixed the collar of his shirt again before his boot-clad feet began to carry him along the street.

It had all started with a young woman in the quaint little port-town where they’d stopped to get a ferry to Anima. Before he’d found the new way to cope- when he’d done so with a little booze and just  _ time away from the group. _ Even without the return of Yang, Weiss, and Blake, Jaune had found himself self-destructing slowly.

Some might have said he was being preyed on, but there’d never been anything she could have done to him that would have hurt him. She’d just been a civilian woman, a dark-haired and pale-skinned twenty-something that had seen him posted up against the bar and come on hard.

And when that’d failed, she’d flashed him a hundred lien chit and said she’d do anything.

As much as he might have liked to say he turned her down, he’d been in a dingy inn room with her not even half an hour later. Taking out his frustrations, his loneliness, his pain, all on her body. And that was the cheapest he’d ever given out since.

Despite how much he had always assumed he had no real attractive qualities, he’d barely been in another town for an hour before he had a woman propositioning him. The second one was a Faunus as well- just like tonight’s- though she’d been of a reptilian breed since she’d had a set of scales that had covered her from shoulders to hips. An older woman, likely in her thirties or forties- probably not her fifties- that had spied him once again trying to have a drink, and mistaking him for being one of those pay-boys that looked too good to be alone at a bar.

It was funny, how he’d gone from being just a guy out for a drink, to being that breed of bar-trawler. They’d arrive in a new town, he’d access their Scroll network, and promptly put out what he liked to call an “APB”.

Just a picture of his body, barely clad, tended to do the job. At first, he’d been more trusting, more attached to the clients- but he’d learned quickly that it only got him more pain and misery at the end of the day.

So now he had rules. Break Jaune Arc’s rules, and you were out. No refunds, no fuss. They were simple. No kissing, no last names, no married people, single-clients only- more for his own protection than anything else, even if he was a Huntsman-, you provided the place- hotels only-, and no romance- even pretend, and of course condoms were required..

The kissing one was always the hardest with women. He couldn’t count the amount of times he’d had to put a firm hand on a woman trying to go for the lips. They could go anywhere else, but he refused lip-on-lip contact out of principle. The few men he’d been with tended to have more issues approaching him to begin with. He had to admit he would have been intimidated as well, so he didn’t blame them.

It’d taught him to be a lot more careful, too. Casing a meeting place tended to make him easily able to figure out if it was some new attempt to “get in the way of business”.

As he turned a corner going up towards the higher tier of Mistral’s layers, he tilted his head as the sound of foot-steps rang into his ears.

Of course, sometimes, people just wanted to get in the way of business anyway. Or just get their unfair cut. It was funny to think of it that way, but it always made the discomfort afterwards easier to deal with. With his hands in his pockets, he turned to note the three men bearing loose clothes and with each bearing a spider tattoo across their bodies in differing places.

Despite himself, he smiled genially. “Hey, guys. Something I can help you all with?”

As much as he would have liked for them to just be friendly, just wanting a moment of his time, they always wanted more.

Jaune Arc didn’t feel like giving more when the first came at him with a knife.

  
  


+x+x+x+x+

  
  


He glanced at his scroll as it registered yet another message, wondering if he should have taken up a different vice when a soft little headache pounded on his head. Sat on the curb, he could only put the device back away as the night turned into day and he felt his Aura deal with the few bruises the men had actually managed to put on him while he’d put to use Pyrrha’s old hand-to-hand techniques.

That she’d drilled them into him like she had was the only reason he wasn’t prone to just flailing with his arms when he got into an unarmed fight. But, thugs never did seem to think someone was a Huntsman if they didn’t have a weapon of some kind on them. He thought more people needed to know who Yang Xiao Long and Lie Ren were, considering either were just as deadly without their weapons, in his opinion.

Another buzz of his Scroll made him bring the thing out, looking at the sight of another message from Ruby that left him feeling the guilt roil in his gut. As he stood from the curb, he brushed his hands along his shirt, still with the dried blood spots on it, and tucked himself into a walk towards Haven once again.

He’d have preferred to get a change of clothes and another shower, but he didn’t see that happening. Oh well, it’d be a better excuse than what he’d come up with off-hand for Ren and Nora. The rest of his friends would fuss over him, but muggings just tended to happen.

Especially if you were a man of the night on someone’s turf, Huntsman or not. It was a good thing it’d happened the night before they were leaving for Argus, at least. Hard to get in trouble when you were out of town before anyone could do anything about it.

As he stepped into Haven’s courtyard, he ended up barely getting his boot in before he found himself in front of Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, and his team.

The fact that neither Weiss or Blake were out there to hunt him down would have made him laugh otherwise, but he had a feeling it had less to do with him and more to do with the events of the night before.

Before, he might have thought it was because they hated him. Now, he knew better.

“Vomit boy! Where -were- you all night-” Yang started, and Ruby paused her in the middle with a quiet voice that sounded much louder than her sister’s inquisitive tone.

“Jaune- is that… blood?”

The question was barely out of her lips before Jaune slathered on a nervous grin, and reached up to run his hand through the hair at his nape. “Yeah, I ran into a few thugs who wanted to mug me on my way back. Yeah, sorry, that’s why it took me so long to get back.”

Ruby would fuss and fret over him, he knew it already. He could predict it like the time of day with a clock. “Are you okay?!” And despite himself, the smile that came forth was genuine. Feeling Ruby worry over him made him feel better, even though it should have made him feel -guilty.-

“Yeah, I’m fine, Rubes. This is all their blood, I promise. “Mama didn’t raise no punk”, you know?” He laughed at his own joke, and knew it would fell flat even before it did. But it would make them feel better. Ren stared quietly at him, and Nora seemed muted, but Ruby at least took it at face value. Behind her, Yang bristled down a bit, and even looked . . . apologetic.

“Jaune…” The blonde woman started, and she and Ruby were already within touching distance of him, and he side-stepped when they went to look him over for injuries.

“I’m fine, guys.” He noted, plastering on that same smile he’d wore ever since Beacon. It hurt his cheeks- and his heart- to wear it so often. But he couldn’t let it look like he was falling apart, especially when he -wasn’t-.

Not as bad, anyway. Three-hundred and sixty lien in his pocket said he was worth way too much alive compared to dead.

Ruby pushed back, mollified by him, though he wasn’t surprised when Yang pulled up his shirt and found the bruises. He knew even after his Aura had taken care of most of them, there was only one that was big enough to be from a fist or foot. The rest?

The rest were too small- and he wouldn’t let Yang get a view of his -back- for sure. Faunus liked to claw, he’d learned. Especially the women, or the men who really loved to get beneath him.

That thought brought an unbidden image to his head, of a much more intimately-known girl clinging to him, husking out his name the way the woman from last night had. Olive skin and brunette hair replaced by pale moonlight skin and raven hair. The thought of Blake beneath him, purring for him the way the woman had, filled his gut with a disturbed sensation.  _ I can’t think of her like that. She’s your  _ **_friend_ ** _ , Jaune. _

“Jaune-” Yang uttered, and he gently grasped her wrist- just above Ember Celica- and made her lower his shirt again.

“It’s okay, Yang. You’d be proud of me, I gave them way worse than I got.” And he had. If he was lucky, they’d be in the hospital. Jaune didn’t feel particularly bad about if they died, though.

He wasn’t that good at heart, not anymore, anyway.

Lilac eyes went up to his face, and he made sure to keep his ocean blue eyes on her’s in turn. Steady, even, unconsciously forcing his  _ will _ on her in turn. Noting the sudden flush of pink on her cheeks, he simply let a grin- far more natural- slide unto his face. “I’m fine.” He reiterated, knowing they were just worried about him. Then his gaze flitted over unto Ren and Nora, offering them a more muted smile. “I just want breakfast, and then a long nap while we’re on the train to Argus.”

His sister would be there, he remembered. He’d have to be a little more careful about posting his usual ad there, but there was no good reason her or her wife would see his listing- and even if they did, he never showed his face or anything more distinguishing than the beginnings of blonde curls just above the real pleasure-point for most.

And there were still plenty of blondes in the world, right? If they were lucky, he wouldn’t even have to see his sister, and he could just go continue to be lost in the wind to the rest of his family.

That thought filled him with  _ hurt. _

Sure, he was still a Huntsman in nature, but . . . There’s no way Mama Arc or his overbearing father would ever be happy to hear of the things he did to get by.

Better to live the fiction that he was going to be a proud mark on the Arc name, that he was doing something that mattered, that he was the hero he wanted to be.

Instead of a mess, giving lonely men and women comfort in exchange for paydays that would have cut a hole in someone’s wallet. He was worth that much, though, and it was professional pride that made him work to earn every bit of each chit.

Once upon a time, he’d enjoyed it more. It’d been more  _ personal _ , but he’d long since learned that sex wasn’t about romance, like he’d always read or heard. It was just . . .

. . . pleasure. People wanted to feel desired, people wanted to feel like the hot young body that made them squirm  _ wanted _ them.

Jaune hadn’t wanted anyone since Pyrrha. Well, no, that wasn’t true. But after Pyrrha, he hadn’t  _ felt right _ having those thoughts about someone else. Especially with Pyrrha’s killer still on the loose.

He didn’t get to be happy.

As Yang stepped away, Ruby nodded in turn, more silent than she usually was, and Ren stepped forward with Nora right behind him to lay a hand on his shoulder, he put on another grin. As his teammates offered him nods, and Ren noted “I’ll go start on breakfast for you.” Jaune took a moment to push the shame and the  _ hurt _ back where it belonged- in the void.

“You’re the best, Ren.” And he meant that. They were all the best friends he could ask for, and he’d do anything for them. Saving Weiss’ life was just one side of the coin, and it was one that still was eating at him.

Cinder would have killed her if he hadn’t unlocked his Semblance. That thought ate at him more than he could admit, and it’d taken a lot of venting to get that thought to just be the minor annoyance it was rather than the embarrassingly  _ hard _ thing he’d felt before he’d agreed to the meeting last night.

People said that some had sex after stressful situations, some kind of psychology-mumble-jumble that Jaune didn’t pay as much attention to as he should have when he was in school. Bearing witness to it in the first-hand point-of-view, Jaune could only agree.

The woman from last night would have the bruises to prove it, but hopefully she’d find every one to be worth it.

As they headed into Haven again, he saw Blake hugging her mother and father, and that made the  _ guilt _ come back in force.

Especially when he found himself imagining what could be hidden beneath those tight clothes she wore. Sun being nearby hadn’t helped, either, but he was used to pushing those dark thoughts back away out of his head.

The person most able to hurt you is yourself, someone had said, and he agreed. Jaune knew that better than almost anyone, he felt. Even if he wasn’t a walking testament to it, he had a good example in Qrow Branwen, as well. They passed Weiss in the hall, and she stopped long enough to give him a look stuck between indignation at being hunted down, and . . .

Something he couldn’t place. And instead of the tongue-lashing he expected from the Heiress, he got only silence and a conflicted look.

But they found themselves all gathered for Ren’s cooking nonetheless, and he smiled and laughed along when Blake told them a truncated version of her time in Menagerie and just what it’d taken to get her back along with the rest of her team. He’d faded into the background with Ren and Nora when she’d apologized to her team, and he found himself wondering just how RWBY could be so easy about the whole situation.

It was something he wished he could understand. Having Blake back was a blessing, he would have gladly agreed if someone asked him, but he didn’t even have the guts to step up.

It made him more miserable than he would have cared to admit- and that was besides the fact that Ren and Nora had been giving him more and more worried looks throughout the morning.

With what he’d said to Cinder, that didn’t surprise him. It didn’t surprise him that no one wanted to confront it, either.

How could they? He was a burden.

He’d always been a burden, even now when he was working to be as strong as he could be, sleepless nights either filled with work or with training.

He wasn’t blind anymore, knowing when Ruby or Ren and Nora would spy on him, listening to Pyrrha’s message and going through the motions just to -not- think for a little while. By this point, he’d edited the message so as to take the last little part out.

How could he hear her almost say those words with what he’d done? He wasn’t so melodramatic as to think he was besmirching her memory, but . . .

He didn’t think he could hear it again without crying. Not now.

As the girls of team RWBY settled into easy talk, he could only feel a  _ stinging _ jealousy of what they had once again. A whole team, sisters in arms ready to “ride or die” as the saying went.

JNPR was no more. Nothing could fix that, even revenge against Cinder Fall would just be empty at best- no matter how it might make him feel better.

But it was the only way he could think of to  _ feel _ better.

He’d be happier when there was less reason to think. Give him a Grimm attack at any moment, it’d be better than being left alone in his head.

Anything was better than that. And with them leaving for the bullet train so shortly from now, he had a bad feeling that it was the only thing he’d get, time alone stuck in his head.

He’d be glad when they were on the train, and hopefully he could just sleep away the trip. A perfect excuse to be alone and -not- think, since he didn’t see any of RWBY or Ren and Nora bothering him to talk.

They didn’t do much talking nowadays. Maybe because he was being distant, he hoped not.

It would have been nice if they’d talk to him. He’d take anything, if he was honest. But it was all business, and the only escape he got as of late was his “work”.

He wondered if he did it for the lien- and he liked the money, don’t get him wrong- or if he did it just to feel validated now.

It was hard not to feel  _ wanted _ when someone was willing to drop a week’s paycheck on an hour with you. If he’d ever had body image issues, they were gone now. Flirtatious smiles, hungry looks, and hands that roved were good ego-boosters in that arena, at least.

It was better than being rejected, for sure. Even if he was no longer “Tall, blonde, and scraggly” and instead “Mister Muscles”. He knew Nora was trying to pump him up when she called him that- and it worked- but it still didn’t quite do the job having someone who had no secondary motive to admire him.

Nora was his friend, and that meant she was invested in trying to make him feel better about himself. As sad as it was, she was the only girl he’d known since Pyrrha to try, who wasn’t paying him for the experience.

They were on a mission, and it was too important to even have a conversation like they’d had back in Beacon. He knew that, but that didn’t make the disappointment less.

Maybe he’d been a bad friend? Ruby was his only “friend” amongst Team RWBY, after all. Maybe he should have put more effort into it? Weiss probably still held their Beacon days against him. Yang was her usual self- and Blake HAD just arrived again.

Even as he used logic to try and push it away, it still left him feeling empty on the inside.

  
As he settled into his seat on the  _ Argus Limited _ later, he felt exhaustion finally creep up unto him, and he was already falling asleep when the train began to speed off.


	2. How You Gonna Act Like That?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reupload.

**Dirty Money**

**Chapter One**

**How You Gonna Act Like That?**

To say the pressure had been eating at him since they'd arrived in Argus without Team RWBY would not have been wrong. To make it worse, though he'd had the lien to afford putting his team up in a hotel room, Ren and Nora had talked sense into him and . . .

Here he was, slipping out of his sister's house with the same excuse. The only difference was that Saphron did not look like she bought it anymore than Ren or Nora might have.

This was what he'd wanted to avoid, but this trip was anything but inexpensive, and Jaune had struggled when he only had the student stipend at Beacon. As he tucked the collar of his jacket up and fixed his hair, he flagged down a taxi and slipped inside.

"Argus Grand, please." Despite it's name, it wasn't the most expensive or well-crafted hotel in the city, but it was close. The client had passed the initial checks- a little word game to allow him to filter through the trash and chaff via requiring a certain word in the first message, and of course either fully paying up front via account to a proxy bank account or supply of an I.D. to protect from authorities.

Jaune had been lucky he'd been so scarce with his work. Mistral had been the first time he'd stayed somewhere long enough to see more than one client, so he was a bit more well to do than he otherwise would have been. Granted, living off of the land mostly had been good for his wallet- even if he'd have killed someone for a cheeseburger when he'd arrived in Argus. If it weren't for being thanked for their help and then having to get in touch with Saphron, he would have made a beeline for the first diner he saw.

The money was burning a hole in his pocket. Maybe he should spend some of it on his friends? Something to show his care and affection?

That sounded nice. After this client, he'd go shopping. Perhaps it would even help him calm down about the girls.

As the taxi arrived in front of the hotel, he'd already gotten a pretty good idea of what to get everyone. As he glanced at the ticker and noted the amount, he pulled the next highest chit from his pocket and slipped it into the receiver with an easy "Thanks, take it easy."

As the taxi pulled off and his boot-clad feet drew him into the hotel, he offered a simple nod in greeting to the concierge and made his way past the main lobby towards the elevators. Sidestepping one when it opened with a crowd, he slipped into the more empty one, lightly nudging the eighth floor button.

Not a penthouse, but if it was, Jaune would have worried. Penthouse suites were the most dangerous part of a hotel, usually because someone who could stay in one for more than a day would generally have a security detail.

He pulled his Scroll out, swapping over to the proxy server he'd gotten set up on it (after a long fucking time reading guides how to do so, holy shit that had taken forever) and taking a moment to confirm that the money transfer was still good.

It was paranoid to the extreme since it had been in his account for an hour now, but he just felt the need to check, and then he flipped over to the picture sent of his latest client.

The elevator dinged and he glanced at himself in the reflective surface of the mirrored walls before stepping out with a crisp little strut.

The clothes he wore to go to a gig were nicer than he usually wore. He'd bought them on a whim in Mistral with the money from the road. Two coats, one a longer black and the other a beige waistcoat. He was wearing the black coat today, with a simple creme sweater top and a set of black slacks alongside his "nice" boots with their golden accent lines.

If this job had taught him to appreciate something mundane, fashion choice was it. Even if he still preferred his comfortable Huntsman clothes.

As he stopped in front of the hotel room, noting the number- 834- before he raised a hand to lightly knock twice, pause, then knock twice more.

It was paranoia, but only when it didn't keep someone from getting shot.

A few moments later, the door creaked open and a young looking face peered out before nervously opening the door, "Hi." The face matched the picture, though the picture sent had been a shirtless one and the male- probably only a little younger than he was now. If Jaune had to make a guess, he was either someone with money's son or a former Sanctum student.

A last hoorah before going off to Shade, Haven, or Atlas. Something he couldn't imagine any of his friends doing. Yet here he was.

He offered the other man a smile, gesturing inside with a "May I?" to receive a nod. As he stepped in, he noted the young man smelled freshly of a shower and cocoa butter. The shoulder length sanguine hair was mitigated by a set of chocolate brown eyes. He took this in, keeping his eyes swept over the other man and the hotel room itself. No sign of anyone else, and the hotel room looked relatively undisturbed, so it was unlikely someone had just vacated.

He started to relax a bit, shouldering off his coat unto a rack near the door. "You remember the rules?" His ocean blue eyes shifted over unto the redheaded male, watching as he nodded after a few moments. A quick glance at the man's fingers didn't show a sign of any rings, and he hadn't expected one anyway. This one seemed too shy.

"No kissing, no romance." The rest were unimportant by this point, so Jaune nodded, satisfied as he gestured to the room. "Uh- can I- ask you for something?"

Jaune's eyebrow raised, and he braced. Requests weren't rare, but starting with them was a sign of a first timer- or just straight up nerves anyway. "What is it?"

"Can you… dominate me?" Well, at least it was something straightforward. Not the first time he'd gotten that request, either.

"Are you asking for me to be your Master, or just for some rough sex?" It was better to ask and know. People had conflicting ideas.

The other man's cheeks flushed nearly as red as his hair. "Master." Despite himself, he was reminded of shy and awkward Ruby. The mere thought of his best friend acting like that, though, sent a stab of guilt through him.

Rolling his neck to help get his neck popped, and then took a deep breath to put himself in the right mood- he settled his eyes on the male and summoned forth the best spark of confidence and intention he could. "Strip naked, and get on the bed.”

His eyes fixated on the redheaded Male's face as he hesitated, forming his lips into a light snarl. "Are you making me wait?  _ Strip naked, and get on your hands and knees on the bed, with that ass in the air, you worthless meat. _ " That sudden increase in intensity and sharp tone got the result he desired, the redhead rapidly slinging his shirt off and then nervously shedding his lounging pants and whatever shorts had been beneath-

-Jaune took the moment it took for him to slip unto the bed to admire the other Male's body. He was in good shape, though there wasn't much in the way of muscles on him. He looked soft, which his lengthy hair and somewhat doe-eyed looks had only enhanced. Many accused Ren of being effeminate, but Ren had a powerful and lithe athlete's build. This body was much more soft, with a pert bottom and, from the look of things, the most masculine part of him was the size of his sac and the girthy- if not too long- length below a copper wire patch. He was cute, and that alone made him presume that he'd hired him more out of a desire for privacy.

Then again, perhaps Jaune's own tastes were just wide. After all, none save for Pyrrha had approached him with anything resembling interest until he began his new line of work.

As the other man settled on the bed, his rump on display, Jaune took a moment to peel off his sweater and lay it atop his coat, taking his time to be methodical and give the redhead room to squirm. His boots followed next, with his pants being left on for the moment as his hands softly trilled his nails along the soft curve of the other man's ass.

"Present, bitch." He noted, putting more emphasis on the command than the slur. At the wince he received, Jaune glanced at his client's length to see if this was going too far- noting the pulsing of the young redhead's length.  _ Good. Not too uncomfortable. _ As he slapped his hand against the inside of the man's thighs once, a whimper came forth from his client and his stance widened.

Satisfied with the young man's obedience, he cupped his hand and delivered a lingering swat onto the redhead's rear, drawing forth a surprised gasp. "Count. One-"

"O-one-!"

**Swat!** "T-two!"

**Krak! "** Three..!" It was time to confuse the man's nerves, his free hand moving down between the spread thighs and grasping the pulsating length to begin lazily gripping and stroking it while his spanking hand drew a bit more wide, intensifying each slap upon the reddening ass.

**Thwap!!** "A-ah-- f-four-" It seemed that the man's stamina was a bit to be desired- or the situation was truly that erotic for him, since Jaune could already feel him readying to erupt. Easing up on his grasp, he lightly held the redheaded male’s length pointed straight down towards the bedding, his thumb curling upwards to put a little pressure on the balls within his sac.  **SWAT!** “Nnnkh- five-!”

“Are you going to cum?” He asked, teasing the red-haired male as the submissive mewled and groaned, his stung-pink rump on full display as the blonde glanced over to the side-table, stepping away for a moment to gather a bottle of what looked to be cheap- if at least plentiful- lube. As the boy whined at being left unattended, the blonde could only laugh softly. “Well, how about we get to the main event, then? Forty-five minutes for you to enjoy as much as you like.”

The groan of weakness from the man as he lubed up his off-hand’s fingers and then began to prepare him was a delight.

+x+x+x+

After he’d showered and left his client to recover, Jaune found himself pulling up a map of Argus on his Scroll so he could try and find a boutique or a mall of some kind. Thankfully, there was one a short walk from the Argus Grand that he figured wasn’t worth hiring another cab for, so his boot-clad feet hit pavement once again and he indulged himself in the pleasant sound of his heels  **clack** ing gently against the concrete that formed the streets of the city. As a trolley passed him, he hurried across an intersection and swept into the parking for the strip mall, letting his mind wander.

_ Something silver for Ruby. To go with her eyes and the other accessories she has. Weiss . . . Maybe something with some red? Just to add some heat to her clothes? Yeah. That sounds good. Yang isn’t one for jewelry, so maybe some perfume or something for her hair? Blake is the hard one. She has a good taste in clothes, but she never wears many accessories. _

He paused as he slipped into a jewelry boutique, perusing the glass display cases while a young woman in a crisp skirt-suit offered him a smile that made him smirk in return, enjoying the way she flushed at him in turn. “How can I help you, sir?”

“I need a few things for some friends. Could you recommend anything?”

The way she deflated was darling, and he couldn’t help but laugh internally at the idea that she was “scoping him out” as it was. “For a ladyfriend?” She asked, and he internally hemmed-and-hawed over whether to play with her feelings a bit- his knee-jerk reaction when he was still in “business” mode, or being honest.

“Ladyfriends. Huntresses I work with.” He clarified, noting the spark that entered her eyes at the idea. “Something silver for one, she wears a lot of red and black. Something with a red jewel for another. Then, if possible, I have a faunus friend who wears a lot of black, white, purple, and gold- but she doesn’t wear a lot of jewelry, so maybe something simple?”

Nora and Ren were much easier to buy for. Already knowing the kinds of things that the two would appreciate the most, and jewelry wasn’t it. He’d buy something at the same place he got Yang’s gift for Ren, and then Nora loved more simplistic gifts. A big, fuzzy comforter- something she and Ren could cuddle up under when it was cold?   
  
He couldn’t help but smile at the idea. From the way the girl’s face flushed again- a blonde with a high and tight bun and red-tinted brown eyes that would have reminded him of Glynda Goodwitch if she had green eyes and wasn’t perhaps half of the older woman’s age, it must have been a nice smile.

“Well, a girl can’t go wrong with a bangle, something nice and simple that isn’t as intensive on the wardrobe.” He nodded along as the girl led him to a display, his eyes sweeping it while his hands remained idle in the pockets of his long black coat. One stood out, a gold bangle with a few curled purple gems that he nodded at. The price tag was a little intense for an accessory, but the money was burning a hole in his pocket.

Maybe Blake would appreciate it. He pointed it out with a set of gloved fingers and then noted, “Now, for the rest,” as the girl had it bundled into a box and carefully wrapped with a black ribbon with the stylized letters of the boutique. The next stop was a longer jewelry counter for necklaces, and he let his eyes rake across it before he noted something interesting.

A choker-style necklace with a silver chain lining the center, alongside a stylized cross that looked similar to the ones Ruby and Qrow wore. Nodding his head, he indicated it before nodding as the store-girl bundled it up in turn. The next stop was earrings, and he didn’t have to look long before he saw exactly what would suit Weiss the most.

A set of ruby-beaded earrings that glimmered with silver, the long glisten of the bloody red making him imagine it against the soft white of Weiss’ face and the light blue of her eyes.

“That. That’s perfect.” He couldn’t help the smile that split his face, either. As the girl bundled up his third purchase, he slid over to the counter where she gently tucked it into a black featureless bag- a safety precaution, he was sure- and he paid for it with the account linked to his work. He didn’t even bother checking the funds afterwards.

What was a few hundred lien when he was sitting on almost ten-times that, and not spending any of it?

As he slipped from the jewelry boutique, down a few doors to a women’s boutique, he noted the older woman manning the displays and couldn’t help but offer her a smile as she broke away to greet him. He wondered how many men came into an expensive looking store like this for a friend. Probably not many- most would assuredly be there for a girlfriend or a wife, he was sure.

Money couldn’t buy happiness, but it could buy a smile at the very least. And Team RWBY would likely need to smile after they got to Argus. As the attendant led him along, they stepped past aisles of hair-dye and care-products.  _ Yang would never dye her hair. _ He thought, idly.  _ She doesn’t look like anything BUT a blonde. _ But, something to put some volume into her hair again? That sounded nice. As the attendant showed him a few bottles of designer scented shampoos and conditioners, he pulled one from the shelf and gave it an idle sniff.

_ Too floral. _ He mused, glancing through the scents on offer and noting aside to the graying woman, “A blonde, long hair . . . reminds me of the sun. Something -warm-?”

“How about-” She pointed at the shelf, trailing her long-nailed finger around until she found a bottle colored a rich orange with a label that was covered in stylized logos. She pulled it from the shelf and offered it to him, him gently popping the top and giving it a wine-scenter’s sniff.

_ Little cinnamon. Some citrus- and smells like a fireplace when it’s lit. Kind of nice. _ He admitted, before nodding to himself. He picked the shampoo and the conditioner to match, then lightly gathered a pair of purple bottles labelled to have lotus and juniper berries as the focus of the scent, remembering Ren’s preferences off the top of his head. “These, please.”

Nora was a simpler purchase, a big fluffy pink and white comforter that he was sure two people could curl up under with ease. Would Nora get the hint? Maybe. Some days, he swore she did, others she just seemed too frustrated with Ren’s willful obliviousness.

The bags didn’t remotely stress him, but he bought a cab back to Saphron’s regardless, slipping into the back seat and rattling off the address.

He couldn’t give Team RWBY’s gifts to them yet, but he was sure he’d see them soon enough. The night was young.  


+x+x+x+

The reunion with RWBY was much more emotional than he’d meant it to be. Blake and Weiss had even approached him, with the Faunus offering him a hug that he’d luxuriated in without much shame.

Then, there’d been Ruby . . .

Nonetheless, he couldn’t say that he hadn’t been riding a high of pleasant feelings since they got back to Saphron’s place, seeing Weiss and Yang coo over Adrien, he could only smile. As Terra moved off to talk business and Saphron took Adrien to lay him down, he figured there was no better time than then to keep rolling out the punches. Asking the group to wait, he’d headed up to his room to gather the wrapped packages, coming down with an arm hanging several bags.

“It’s kind of dumb, I know-” He grinned, knowing it looked much more nervous than the ones he was used to giving lately, “-but I was thinking about you girls while you were gone, and I got gifts for everybody.”

His blue eyes missed the way Ren and Nora stiffened, their attentions drawn to his movements as he set aside the bag filled with Ren and Nora’s gifts and carefully passed out the boxes.

Ruby was the first, in that she was eager and enthused, looking confused when he settled the rectangular black box with it’s cute black ribbon and the stylized gold lettering into her hands. Yang’s eyebrow perked when he gave her a home-wrapped gift in rich crimson red and with gold ribbon, the hair-care products within. Another pair of black boxes were produced for Blake and Weiss, with the Heiress looking confused and in askance at the smaller box but equally ostentatious wrapping.

Blake’s reaction was the only one he couldn’t fully grasp, as her lips firmed up and her eyes looked at him deeply for a moment, before her attention was drawn back to the present. He felt like a gift-giver during the Winter festival, but- well- it was what little he could do to show his affection and care for his friends. As he turned away from the girls, he pulled the bag that protected the heavy comforter and slung it towards Nora who caught it with a blink and a light look, and he settled a pink and black box in Ren’s hands instead, a light wink sent to his brother-in-arms. “You have no idea how funny it is that I got this gift for a guy friend, and got Nora that. It’s wild.”

His joke fell short, it seemed, since Ren stared at him in turn for a moment, before letting out a soft and gentle little “Thank you, Jaune.”

As he settled back unto the couch where he’d left to get the gifts, he blinked as no one had opened their presents yet. “What? It’s not a prank or anything, go on- open them up.” The smile he wore was aching his cheeks, but he didn’t feel he could be blamed.

He’d never given any of them anything of material value, so it was only fair that he finally splurged a little and did something just -nice- for his friends. RWBY looked to their leader, before the silver-eyed girl blinked and unslipped the ribbon and then lightly lifted the lid- only to let out a soft little gasp. “Jaune? This-”

Weiss was next, looking at the box like she was sure within would be a coiled snake or some other juvenile prank- that he totally might do before back at Beacon, but no longer- and when she noted the contents, her fingers tightened on the box and a complicated look fit itself like a mask over her pretty features.

Yang blinked, but unfitted the box from within the red wrapping paper and the gold ribbon, admiring the pair of bottles she pulled free with a whistle. “These- these look expensive, Ladykiller.” She noted, her voice a bit more muted than it might have otherwise been as she held the orange up to the light and admired the way the liquid within gently shifted here and there.

“It was nothing. I had some money to blow.” He demured, watching as Blake was the last to open her gift, face conflicted as she revealed the gold bangle with its purple gem accents within, gently unfitting the thing from the little plush cover within and turning it over in the light before lightly slipping it over her wrist and under the sleeve of her coat.

“It certainly wasn’t nothing.” Blake murmured, though he waved it off as yet more humility on the parts of his friends, turning his gaze towards Nora who was the most exuberant out of the rest of them, the huge comforter by now being wrapped around herself and Ren, the gleeful grin showcasing that- if nothing else- it’s fuzziness was the most appropriate part for her. Ren, however, lightly held the bottles of expensive shampoo and conditioner between his hands and seemed to take note of it before nodding his head.

It was lien well spent, in his opinion. The most expensive of all the gifts was Blake and Weiss’, and that was still just a drop in the bucket to the size of his work account. He still had several thousand lien just sitting around inside of it in case of an emergency, so he could only feel positive about getting to use it for something that would make his friends happy.

His gaze turned onto Ruby, the girl fiddling with the choker and finally unclasping it, fitting it to her neck and moving over to one of the few mirrors in Saphron’s house, tilting her head this way and that before she cracked a light grin. “Wow, it looks cool! Thanks, Jaune!”

“I’m glad you like it, Ruby. You’re my friends. Making you guys happy is all I really want.”

Although he relaxed, content, he missed the way three sets of eyes lingered on him for a moment longer. Ren and Nora, and a set of amber eyes that drooped alongside her lips.

+x+x+x+

_ You’re dirt. _ He’d thought, unable to help the way his intense emotions were making his footfalls louder and louder. He’d been planning to make good on another client when the meeting had started. So he’d sat there in his nice clothes, thankful that the sombre and heavy mood had deflected any attention towards what he was wearing or where he was going.

If only it could have been the way the whole time. Instead, he’d gotten angry. Ozpin was to blame for Pyrrha’s death- her  _ senseless sacrifice. _ Pointless. Utterly without  _ anything _ to make it redeemable.

It felt like Ozpin had all but spit on his friend- on a girl he could have come to love.

Just the way he had, because he hadn’t known what she was struggling with at the time.  _ You’re lower than dirt. _ He thought, shrugging down onto a bench as the cold night air enveloped him. The breeze washing blonde locks into and out of his sight for a moment before he let his head lull back.

_ Fuck. _ That one word was so charged with guilt and pain that he couldn’t rightly add more to it. Gloved hands coming out of his pockets to knit together and let his head hang forward instead. He was so awash in the negativity that he couldn’t sit still. He didn’t even know how long he’d been walking, just that he’d had to cancel on his client. It wasn’t safe to try and work while he was so emotional. He could only hope they wouldn’t mind rescheduling.

_ There goes that client, too. What a hit. _ He couldn’t believe he was even thinking that just then, but- well- at least it was better than just self-aggrandizing his own aches. The stirring of the wind made his unsettled eyes move across, and then he saw the center of the park.

Like something was drawing him, he stood and made his way into the park, hands once again in the pockets of his long black coat as he drew closer and felt his heart  _ drop. _

Whoever made the statue should have been paid more. The features were there, the only thing wrong that her eyes looked so featureless and lifeless. Overlaid over them for a moment with vivid dark green jewels that stared at him sadly, and that made his heart  _ clench _ in his chest and he choked back the thought that came with it.

_ Trash. _

For a moment, he wanted to buckle and just fall to his knees- but he was so shocked stiff his body didn’t even listen. His head hung, and it took a supreme effort of will to look up again and see her face.

Even a stone impression of it made him  _ hurt. _

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” The words shocked him, his gaze tearing away from  _ her _ features and turning towards the woman standing nearby. Red hair and green eyes-  _ glasses- _ and for a moment he could only shake his head as he murmured in response.

“Yeah.”

It felt so weak. She had been beautiful. He’d been blind to it. To her affections, to her wants. Now, he could never tell her that maybe he’d wanted her too. For all that she’d done for him, this was the one thing he couldn’t anymore.

You couldn’t want what was gone. It was madness- the very madness that drove him forward. The thought to ask her a question passed, and instead, he put his hands into his pockets again as he noted the poinsettia flowers in her arms.

For a moment, he wished he had flowers he could lay there as well. That thought vanished with the startling realization that he was -standing in front of her memorial in his work clothes.-

That thought hit him hard. Hard enough that his lips worked without thinking, “She was even more pretty.” Jaune noted, pulling the sides of his coat in tighter against his body, subconsciously widening his stance and putting his chest more on display through the beige sweater-top. “It’s… hard to look at.” He admitted, unable to keep his head between “Jaune Arc, the Huntsman” and “Jaune Arc, the Prostitute”.

“You knew her?” The redheaded woman asked, and he nodded in turn, offering a  _ hurting _ smile.

“She was my partner.” He said, keeping his  _ intensity _ on her for the moment. “She… taught me everything. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her.” And those words couldn’t hold more true than right then. He would have  _ died _ without Pyrrha. He owed her everything- and she’d gone and given her life, too.

That  _ hurt _ only intensified. When her eyes settled on him again, and he could only smile sadly at her in response, he let his right hand come free from his pocket to rest at his side. His eyes moved from Pyrrha’s mother- the only thing he could even think of the redheaded woman to be, considering the resemblance- up unto the statue again.

The statue with its head bowed in determination- but instead, all he could see was the disappointment, the pain.

_ All for him. _

Against his better judgement, he let out a soft little laugh. “Are you okay?” She asked, and he shook his head.

“Could be better. Sorry. There’s a lot to unpack here.” What could he say?  _ I loved your daughter? _ How much could he hurt her family more than he already had? He’d  _ failed _ her.

He couldn’t even take revenge on Cinder Fall. Instead, Yang’s mother had done the job. And wasn’t  _ that _ a kick in the balls? What was he worth? Just some money? Just a  _ body _ ?

He smiled at  _ her mother _ and found himself welling up inside. The look on her face was complicated, and he couldn’t even begin to describe it. “She was your daughter, wasn’t she? It shows.”

_ No. _

“Oh- well- thank you.” It definitely showed. The shy, but bright smile was something inherited, he could tell.

_ No! _

__ And before he could say more, he heard his name being called, and he turned his gaze away from her for a moment- and when he saw Ren and Nora- he looked back towards where she’d been and found only the laid flowers.

Pyrrha’s disapproving, hurt stare only ate him up more on the inside.


	3. Forever Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The prelude-

**Dirty Money**

**Chapter Two**

**Forever Fall**

  
  


As the sound of boot steps came up behind him, he heard the way Nora’s question petered off as she saw what it was that he had been looking at. For a moment, silence reigned and the  _ hurt _ in his chest only intensified. Agony, blistering and kind with its embrace, was the friend of the hour.

“I’m sorry.” He started, knowing his mouth was about to run away from him, but not feeling particularly strong enough to stop it, “I’m a terrible friend, she should be-”

Ren’s voice entered his ears, and he shocked towards the black-haired man, seeing those pink eyes gazing at him with their own  _ hurt _ and  _ ache. _ “Jaune. This has to stop.” His gaze drifted away from Ren, and found no real recourse when he saw that Nora looked just as stricken- no, perhaps even worse.

“We heard what you said to Cinder. At- At Haven. You’re not being fair to yourself-”  _ No, I’m being more than fair- _ He wanted to deny it, but she pressed on, “We love you, just the same as we loved Pyrrha. We’re team-mates. Family.”

“We don’t want to lose you, too.” Ren noted, and Jaune’s head hung again. The intensity of his emotions only grew stronger, and it choked him from saying anything as the wind blew through the plaza and all he could think was-

- _ Trash. _

His lips lied, curling into a small,  _ aching _ smile. His gaze rose up unto  _ her _ features again, and Jaune could only wish that she was here. That he could  _ apologize, _ for not being good enough. For not being worthy of standing by her side.

_ Of not dying with her. _

Maybe then he’d have been a hero. Like she was. Like she’d always been. Pyrrha may have not enjoyed how disconnected she felt from people due to her status, but there was no denying that she was the best of them. She was a hero, and that at least, gave him pride in her.

All of his friends were heroes, in his eyes. He had always been the one without the strength, without the character, to stand up to those ideals. His failure cost them Pyrrha, and if he hadn’t unlocked his Semblance . . .

They would have lost Weiss, too. There was no closure to be gained here, just more  _ pain. _ “I loved her.” He said, as the breeze picked up again and he tucked his coat in tighter against his body again. He didn’t notice how once again his stance had widened, projecting raw animal confidence. “I just didn’t know it yet. I should have noticed, I could have  _ helped _ -”

As the tears began to fall, he hated himself for feeling so weak. He had never believed in the idea that men needed to hide their emotions, to not be  _ sensitive _ \- but it served his self-destructive purpose in that moment. So he hated himself more and more with every passing second.

Despite himself, he couldn’t bear to look at his friends just then, to know the expressions that they were likely giving him. Silence was the only thing that met them, and he could only feel it with a soft little breath. As he brought his arms up, almost hugging himself as he let one hand rest across his shoulder while the other pressed in tight against his chest, he spoke.

“Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee.” They were words she’d said to him, once upon a time. Now, however, they held a different meaning. There were no more virtues. No glory and victory, only  _ pain _ and  _ misery. _ He wasn’t invincible- like they’d said she was.

He was anything but. With that little soft prayer, he stepped away from the Memorial, and moved to fade into the night like the passing breeze. His Scroll pulled from his pocket as he rounded the corner away from the quiet gazes of his friends.

His fingers flew through the keyboard, and he rescheduled the meeting. He needed the comfort, the power.

The  _ sense of worth. _

An hour later, with another hotel walked out of, and- instead of planning to go back to his sister’s home- he opened the Scroll again and swapped over to the proxy account. It hadn’t been enough- the money was excellent, as always- and he could only breeze through the lonely and desperate.

As he walked the streets of Argus, he had business to do. Anything to take his mind off of the  _ shame _ and the  _ guilt. _

He’d been about to pick up  _ Pyrrha’s mother. _ Gods. How could he even start to try? Hadn’t he ruined that family enough already? They had no daughter to love, to cherish for her accomplishments and the  _ pride _ they must have felt?

Pyrrha had never talked about her family, and he could understand why. It hadn’t been on the list of topics he particularly enjoyed, either. Saphron was the only one he’d ever felt could  _ understand. _ She’d wanted more than just a life under the eclipsing moon of the  _ Arc _ name.

He’d looked up to all of his sisters, but she’d been the one to step out and away from Ansel. Even his oldest sister, Camillia, had given up on the idea of becoming a Huntress when their parents had given her the same treatment that he’d received until he’d run away with Crocea Mors and just enough money to get his transcripts forged and a dingy motel room until the semester would start.

Look at him now. In Argus,  _ whoring _ himself out to make himself feel better because the mental image of  _ Pyrrha _ staring at him in sadness was too much for him to bear.

He didn’t feel better.

+x+x+x+x+

Back in Saphron Arc’s house, they discovered Oscar once again, though this time they’d lost someone else in the fuss of searching for him. When Ren and Nora returned- without Jaune- Ruby Rose could only shake her head sadly.  _ He’s out there, somewhere, hurting again. _ He did that a lot, and though she’d been privy to his nightly beating sessions- there was no training there, only punishing himself, no matter how he might have improved greatly since the Fall of Beacon- she never knew what he did when he dressed so much more nicely and wandered off into the night.

She just knew he came back, and seemed to feel better. The first time it’d been an honest issue was when he’d come back to Haven covered in bruises and blood, and been gone the whole night.

But he was  _ Jaune. _ Jaune would talk to them, she was sure of it. He was her  _ friend,  _ and sometimes friends just needed space and time. She’d learned that thoroughly thanks to both Blake and Weiss. It just didn’t help her feel better about the fact he still hadn’t come around.

It ate her up inside, to know that she could do nothing for him. If Ren and Nora couldn’t, how could she?

As she fiddled with the cross on her collar, she wished she knew what to do.

“We should go find him.” Weiss noted, a vehemence on her face that Ruby would have felt proud of in any other situation, but right then? It didn’t feel like the right thing to do.

In fact,  _ nothing _ felt right when it came to her first and best male friend anymore. He’d been distant, and it was the first time he’d seemed just  _ happy _ when he gave them all their gifts. Like he’d done something that was  _ worth something _ again.

She’d been blind to it, so happy to receive a present from her friend, but then she’d seen how Blake had looked afterwards, fiddling with the bracelet he’d gotten her.

Ruby had been willing to dismiss it as discomfort at first, but then she’d seen a similar look on Ren and Nora’s faces. Something was going on, and though Ruby didn’t know, she got the feeling that it was  _ bad. _

The world had never looked so gray as Ren and Nora went up to their room, looking conflicted. Nor when Saphron came into the living room, and asked with a quiet, scared voice, “Where is Jaune?”

No one had an answer for her, and Ruby saw that- for all their differences- big sisters must all fret endlessly over their younger siblings.

The night passed without Jaune returning, but in the morning, by the time they were preparing breakfast under the directions of Jaune’s sister, he stepped into the house with his lips in a thin line, and his hands in his coat until he settled it unto the rack next to the door. Ruby watched, helpless, as Saphron pulled him aside and they tried to have a muted conversation.

Ruby knew he’d just deflect, insist that he just needed space. It was the same excuse he always gave, and up until that point, Ruby had bought it, even if only Yang had been the one who seemed to join her in that thought.

Weiss’ poor morning awareness even held a grim face to it, and Blake seemed to get one sniff of him before she’d simply sat down with a sour look on her face.

Was he out all night, and smelled bad? He didn’t seem to, from what she could tell. In fact, he smelled quite nice. Like a rich perfume with roses as the base.

She wasn’t sure when Jaune had started wearing beauty products like that, but Ruby couldn’t help but think it helped increase his appeal. It made him seem . . . like he cared about himself again.

+x+x+x+

Another pair of nights passed. The same song and dance, he’d make an excuse and steal out into the night with an appointment at a hotel, and a client waiting for his services. He was too focused on psyching himself up and putting himself into a “work” mentality to take notice of how Saphron watched him walk out with a pair of eyes just like his that seemed to quake.

As he slipped into the cab, he checked his proxy account and noted that the transfer had already been completed. Nodding his head as he settled the chair, he noted, “Atlesian Suites, please.”

It was only the third time he’d been to this hotel in the week since they’d arrived in Argus. It wasn’t as fancy as the Grand, or even the Schnee-endorsed The Kingdom hotel, but that just meant a more casual client, usually. There was something pleasant about a less demanding client that always put him more at ease. He’d learned a lot about hotels since he’d made it a firm rule, and you could tell a lot about a client by their choice in lodgings.

Those in nicer, more expensive places always fell into one of three categories. Power-hungry, hungry for loss of their power, or just so desperate for stress relief that they inevitably were always the ones who wore out every second of the metaphorical clock.

As the cab played a jaunty rhythm and blues tune, he let his head drain of the worries and fusses that had been eating at him. This was business- he needed to be in the right mindset to offer his client the best experience he could. Almost four-hundred lien for an hour was- after all- an expense not everyone could just throw around willy-nilly.

It was funny to think that prostitutes- escorts if he was more political about it- could rely on reviews for better business, but he did. The history of his sessions was on display alongside his every APB, and so he could scroll through them if he felt particularly like doing it at times. It was always the most amusing when a fresh one would pop up right after a meeting, like the young redheaded male had left one that glowed.

He hoped he had a good time in Atlas at the Academy.

As they pulled up in front of the hotel, he slipped a chit for payment with a tip to the driver and then slid out into the chill of Argus’ early year. As he tucked the collar of his coat up against his jaw, he gave an idle smile towards the attending staff as he slipped in and- once again- made a beeline for the elevator. The important part of not drawing attention in these places was to act like you belonged, like you were just another person staying there and it wasn’t worth the fuss to ask who you were, or how you could be helped.

People were selfish like that, wanting to not rock the boat. Something about Bystander Syndrome? He had never paid as much attention in school as he should have, that was just a sad fact of life for him.

A gloved finger lightly pressed in the fourth floor button, and he leaned back against the wall of the elevator as the doors closed and the soft beats of a Pop love song rang out in the rising box.

Despite himself, his footed foot tapped against the bottom of the elevator with each hit of the drum.

_ “I was a player- So good at bad behavior-” _

As the elevator let off onto the floor, he stepped free and mentally went over the room number again.  _ Four-Oh-Nine. Four-Oh-Nine- _ as he found himself in front of the door, he nodded his head and then promptly delivered his usual announcement of the two short raps, a pause, then another two short raps.

_ “I wanna love your brains out-” _

“Come in.” A voice came muffled through the door, and he tested the knob, seeing it was already slightly ajar- likely how he could hear the voice at all with how these rooms tended to be more soundproofed- and stepped in. Noting the lack of any extra people or looks like someone had recently vacated, he slipped his coat from his body and hung it unto the rack by the door before stepping into the room-

-and coming to a horrified, complete stop as his eyes settled on Ren settled on the bed, in a more casual Mistralian outfit than his combat attire.

“Hello, Jaune.”

His mind went haywire, and rather than advance through with some plan, he started to turn and leave the room instead-

“Jaune.” He stopped at the pleading he could sense in Ren’s otherwise even voice. His hands fisted at his sides.

It had always been inevitable that he’d be found out someday. He’d just thought it would have taken longer- or maybe he’d hoped it would have stayed the same? His friends willing to let him have his space so he could fall apart slowly and steadily.

He should have known better. After all, Ren and Nora had tried to make an appeal to him not even a few nights ago. What could he say? What could he  **do?**

“Look at me.” He hated how that voice, his friend’s voice, held one of the few rare expressions of emotions that he swore Ren never did display unless you knew him well enough. Jaune knew the way to discern the normally stoic man’s emotions as clearly as he could figure out how stressed Ruby was just by how she held Crescent Rose like a teddy-bear.

So he turned, his ocean blue eyes watching as Ren stood from the bed and stepped towards him, pink eyes lingering across his features and reminding him of how upset he must have looked when Ren’s lips curled downwards ever so slightly in a frown.

“I grew up in Mistral.” His brow raised in return to that segue, and from the way Ren’s features relaxed, his confusion must have been the preferable alternative. “Just me and Nora, we had to do a lot of things to survive that no one would be proud of, and we saw people doing much worse than us.”

Lying, cheating, stealing- it was something Jaune was familiar with. After all, he’d lied his way into Beacon and stole the family heirloom, and until Pyrrha had helped him to get past that fact, it had colored his every waking moment at the school. Then . . .

Then it’d come back with a vengeance when they’d lost their team-mate, his partner. It’d been all he could do to focus on helping Ruby to get to Haven. “You’re a good liar.” Ren noted, and he nodded in turn, “But we know you too well. The new clothes, coming back bruised, smelling of perfume . . .”

Jaune’s head and shoulders slumped.  _ Guilt _ roiled in his chest, plucking the metaphorical strings of his heart. Despite Ren’s even tone, he could only feel that each word was a knife tickling its edge on his skin. “... the change in how you act.”

“Ren, I-” He swallowed thickly past a wave of saliva drenching his mouth. “I just-” He couldn’t even finish his sentence, and worse than that, he couldn’t meet Ren’s face in even the smallest of ways. He felt the familiar pangs of  _ hurt _ that were often characterized in times when he was being scolded by his mother or father. Those memories didn’t help, either. The  _ pain _ of his parents’ dismissal of his chances at being a Huntsman still  _ ached. _

And no matter his relative success, it never felt good enough. Nothing was good enough anymore, it all fell so flat when he was put up against his friends. The real heroes, the real tried and true. He was just a fake.

A fake who had cost them one of the premiere talents of the generation, who had cost them all a friend. “I’m sorry.” He uttered, under his breath, and as he went to turn and gather his coat, Ren’s hands settled on his shoulder.

“I have you for an hour.” Ren remarked, gently, and it was the professional in him that laughed in Jaune Arc’s face at such a cheap trick. That Ren had went there at all said that he was grasping at straws. His back stiffened, and- despite his desire to flee- he turned to face Ren again.

“You can just take the money back.” The blonde remarked, and Ren simply shook his head in return.

“If it will make you talk to me, it’s already yours.” Despite himself, his panicked reaction melted into one of surety- into the feeling of power and control he played with when he was with a client.

“I don’t do a lot of talking when I’m with someone, Ren.” Inwardly, he could only be cross with himself. Flirting? With  **Ren?**

“Then don’t talk.” Ren remarked, “Listen.” Against his judgment, an arm came out, wrapping around the shorter man’s hips, minding the way those pink eyes of his widened and his cheeks burned with a soft salmon color from the rush of blood to them. A big palm hooked around the Mistralian man’s hip and pulled him in, his own powerful body against the more toned and svelte figure of his friend.

“Jaune?” Ren’s voice was unsure, and Jaune couldn’t blame him in turn. He’d been just as unsure when he’d first taken a male client. Sure, Jaune had been confident in his sexuality since a young age- growing up with so many sisters encouraged you to learn quick in many different ways- but it’d been a step past what the “norm” was. It was something he understood deeply when it came to Yang and her own interest in Blake.

Homosexuality was one of those things that still held a stigma in society, not quite to the degree that Faunus had it, but there were traditionalists- like his parents- who spurned the idea. Saphron coming out had been a fight. One he hadn’t wanted to replicate in any way. Another reason he was the most connected with his second-oldest sister.

Ren was a beautiful man, it was true, but Jaune hadn’t taken the time before to consider any ability he could have had to be attracted to him with how Nora floated around him with feelings even  **he** could not miss. Was it right, what he was doing right now?

He was deflecting, wasn’t he? Trying to use his animal instincts to distract Ren. From talking about this issue. “Jaune-” Rather than letting Ren try to coerce him into speaking, Jaune  **attacked.** His lips sinking against the other man’s throat and his teeth nipping softly across the line of his jugular, getting a private little thrill out of the way Ren’s body leaned into him in return and a hand nervously wound up against his spine and the other acting unsure at his nape. A soft breath coming from his friend’s lips as his teeth sank in enough to leave a hickey.

His free hand grasped out, digging in the breast of his coat until he pulled a small bottle and a foil-wrapped package free and tucked them into his pants pocket. The robe-like top was too thin to protect Ren from him as his hands slipped instead into the breast of the thing and slid it from his friends shoulders. Lips trailing kisses down the other man’s chest until his lips found a nipple and starkly lashed his tongue out against it, earning a whimper that ignited a firm desire in him.

There was no denying that he found Lie Ren worthy of ravishing, and if it kept the talk of the night at bay a little longer, he’d indulge in it. He would feel terrible about it later, but that was the Jaune Arc of later. His hands rolled over his friend’s abdomen and then rushed around, grasping hold of his ass and hefted him up into powerful arms that earned him a surprised call of his name as he brought Ren over to the bed once again and laid him upon it.

Stooping over the other man, Jaune’s teeth brought forth soft little laughs from Ren’s throat as his lips drew down carefully defined abdominal muscles and then his fingers tucked into the hem of his pants and then shucked them and whatever lay beneath until he was staring Ren’s curious arousal in the metaphorical face.

_ Attack. _ He thought to himself, and his face nestled against a powerful thigh, his tongue darting out to taste the flesh of his friend’s length before he rolled his neck and steadily took him to the root into his throat. Fingers knitting in his hair as Jaune’s lips wrapped tight around Ren’s cock and he felt the soft rush of droplets of salty pre-cum dribbling down unto his tongue.

Had Nora ever done this for him, he wondered. He imagined if she had, Ren would not look so tense all the time. His tongue flitted out from his lips, teasing at the sack underneath that tensed up when his throat clenched around his friend’s cock. Jaune’s arms were propped on either side of Ren’s hips, keeping him stable as his head began to steadily slick the other man’s length with his spit and the warmth of his mouth.

“Jaune-” He’d heard his name so much from Ren’s mouth tonight. It was laugh-inducing otherwise, but right now, he was focused. Craning his jaw forward, he pushed the very tip of Ren’s length up into his throat and  **swallowed** , earning a deep groan of pleasure that said Ren very likely had no clue how to deal with what he was feeling at the time.

He felt sorry for Nora. Privately, he promised to make sure their red-headed team-mate would get what she wanted from her crush, if he had anything to say about it.

As his lips released Ren’s length, he brought his hands up, opening the other man’s legs up and sinking down a bit to draw one of his balls into his mouth, softly cupping the sensitive thing and trilling his tongue against it, an eye craning up to see the way Ren  _ twitched _ as a result, before he lavished his tongue across the other sensitive orb, just before he stood up straight again to admire the way the dark-haired male under him was looking up at him with a myriad of expressions washing across his face.

“Jaune, we don’t have to do this-” Even as Ren spoke, Jaune was pulling his sweater up over his body, tossing it onto the floor. Was he handsome? Irresistible? It was a thought he’d let thrill in the back of his mind while he’d been with clients before, but he wouldn’t dare ask Ren.

Ren saying Yes or No would change everything. He didn’t know the people who paid him for his time, Ren knew him. Ren having an opinion would only  _ hurt,  _ even if it was a positive one.

Jaune knew Nora loved Ren. How could he come between that? He’d done enough, as it was. As he kicked off his own boots and pants, he leaned down once again, raking his teeth against the other man’s earlobe. “Do you want to be on top, or should I?”

“Jaune-”

“If you don’t make a decision, I’ll go for what I like better.” The blonde warned, his blue eyes firm on Ren’s pink eyes in turn. “And, I should tell you, I’m kind of partial to letting Nora take your virginity.”

Those words alone seemed to mollify Ren, and the man shifted back on the bed, opening his legs wider. It was probably the closest thing he’d get to an answer, so Jaune accepted it, digging the condom and lube from his pants before beginning to prepare. First by sheathing his length in the rubber, then by spilling some of the slick substance across his first two fingers and lightly beginning to spread the substance around the ring of Ren’s anus before slipping his longer middle finger inside with a soft little “Unf-” from his friend.

The way Ren’s ass clenched around his finger thrilled him, unable to deny the way his own length quavered with hunger. Another dollop of the slick solution to spread his friend open with a second finger, and then he poured some onto his covered length and rubbed it in as he settled up unto the bed and pressed his tip to Ren’s virgin passage.

“Deep breath.” He warned, softly, and Ren nodded in turn, letting out a little mewl of discomfort when he began to  **push** \--

\--and Jaune’s cockhead slid within, followed shortly by a few inches before he felt himself start to bottom out. “Big-” Ren grunted, and Jaune could only smirk.

“That’s part of what they pay me for.” He agreed, feeling more than a little smarmy even as Ren’s legs tucked in and grasped around his hips, those arms locking behind his nape. A few moments passed while he let Ren get accustomed to the intruder, before he shifted back up a bit, pouring a bit more lube unto his length before he began to spread it with slow and aching thrusts into the dark-haired man’s ass.

And gods, Ren was tight. Tighter than the red-headed young man from a few days ago. Or perhaps it was just the fact Jaune was with someone he -knew-, someone he couldn’t just take the money and leave to never see again, but he couldn’t deny the pleasure that was coming from this at the moment.

“Feels weird.” Ren grunted out, and Jaune had to fight down a chuckle as his cock bottomed out inside of his lover once again.

“Always does the first time. How about-” He shifted up a bit, breaking Ren’s lock at the back of his neck, one hand keeping himself balanced while the other- the lubed one- grasped the other man’s cock and began to lazily stroke it near the tip where it was slick with precum already. “-this?”

His playful tone apparently didn’t help Ren either, from the way the Mistralian man bucked into his hand and let out a grunt. A few lazy pumps of both his friend’s cock and his own steady hips, and Ren let out a much more needy sound as his hand was soon coated in sticky white.

He couldn’t help but tease, “That was fast.” His gaze had remained fixed on Ren’s since the start of their coupling, and those words ignited a fresh new blush on the dark-haired male’s face. It was even more darling when Ren’s face buried against his chest, and it was obvious he was hiding from Jaune’s gaze.

The blonde couldn’t help but want to eat his friend up. His hands moved away, settling fully onto Ren’s hips and holding him steady as he began to pick up pace as his cock stretched open the other man’s hole.

The rough, panting little gasps were music to his ears as he felt Ren fail to go soft against his own stomach and pelvis. Half an hour passed like that, with him keeping Ren stuck between orgasm and being coaxed through learning how to enjoy receiving anal sex. And then Jaune could finally take no more and his own first orgasm came, with him hilting deep inside of the Mistralian man and letting loose a bestial growl as he flooded the condom and finally laid side-by-side with his team-mate.

It was . . . pleasurable. And he couldn’t deny it was even better than the times he’d easily had multiple orgasms with the clients who inevitably wanted barely any break between one romp and another. The fact the poor condom was stretched to its limits with his release was only further proof.

As they laid there, in a glow, Ren finally spoke again. “Jaune… you shouldn’t have to lie to us.” And Jaune couldn’t find it in him to fight about it.

“They’ll hate me.” He uttered, and he knew without having to look at the other man’s face that Ren wouldn’t buy that excuse.

“It’ll be strange.” Ren admitted, “But we’re all worried about you. You have to let us in.”

“Isn’t that what you’ve been doing?” It was a lame joke, but the way Ren flushed made it worth it. After a few moments of letting his friend stew in his discomfort, though, Jaune sighed and gave a defeated nod.

“Alright. I’ll try. For you guys, okay?”

“That’s all I ask, Jaune.”


	4. Heartless

**AN:** Queue up your man, The Weeknd.

**Dirty Money**

**Chapter Three**

**Heartless**

  
  


Jaune had learned to hate promises, he had started to avoid them if at all possible. Ignoring the one he’d asked Ruby to give him on the train headed towards Argus, he’d not spoke a promise to anyone since that night at the dance.

Even before he’d come to Beacon, it’d been a fact of life amongst his family that their word was their bond. An Arc Word was as good as a death sentence. Permanent, final.

Making that promise to Ren wasn’t something he did lightly. Even if he would have rather he hadn’t. How would the girls react? He could already imagine. The looks of pain, of disgust, the abandonment he’d feel. After he’d trekked through Sanus and Anima with them, through thick and thin, risking his life and others’. It was paranoia, at least on some level, but it was also a real fear Jaune had always held.

That he’d been holding the group back. That he did more harm than he helped. No matter how he proved himself on the field, that feeling ate at him inside. Emotions were not things based on logic, and Jaune knew he wore his on his sleeve constantly. It was the side-effect of growing up in a house with the only masculine example he had being his own father- austere and aloof, even dismissive, if Jaune was brutally honest.

Jaune’s family history was not one he enjoyed speaking about. Even being around Saphron was… a test in his pain threshold, if he was honest. She was one of the few members of his family who had ever supported him wholly rather than dismissed his dreams as out of reach.

No matter how he’d proved them wrong, no matter how he’d made his way in the world without their help, he could only picture the orange-painted lips of his mother set in a thin line just before ushering forth the soft, “comforting” words-

“When it doesn’t work out, you will always be able to come home.”

-those words stung still, to this day.

Jaune had been born into a family of affluence- even if they were not a household name like the Schnee. And part of that was the unfortunate nature of being the youngest of eight children, and the only male. His father was aloof and distant, and his mother was so entrenched in the world of politics amidst his home in Ansel that she had disconnected herself further and further from raising her children after the mess that had resulted from his oldest sister, Camillia.

It had taught Jaune that he was not worth anything. He’d hidden those feelings of deep insecurity behind false bravado- and then by entrenching himself in Pyrrha’s training and becoming the best student at Beacon he could be. He couldn’t compete with Weiss, but he clawed and dragged his way up from the bottom academically, and only struggled in combat classes.

That had only to be expected with his decision to falsify his way into Beacon with no combat training. Even now, when he was arguably just as capable as the rest of the group, he felt as if he was dragging the team down.

Then, he’d found something he was worth. He was attractive, even if not to the girls whose opinion mattered most to him. So he’d latched on.

But now, he felt as if that had been a mistake. Especially as he sat in the room “team JNR” had claimed out of Saphron’s house, with Ren flanking one side while Nora sat on the other. And, in front of him, lay the greatest challenge of all.

Not Cinder. Not Salem. Team RWBY.

His friends. The friends he’d been sneaking behind the backs of, for over a year now. The friends who didn’t know who he really was, or what he really did. Just that he’d stayed with them since Beacon. That he’d been hurting, without any recourse other than to punish himself for failing. Failing Pyrrha, failing them.

All he did was fail. And the more he dwelled on those thoughts, the more this felt like a mistake. The more he wanted to scream and run, rather than face this with a brave face. Nuckleavee, Cinder, those were easy.

But his friends? How could he face them with this? This thing he’d done to make ends meet- and then kept doing when he started to crave it. The feeling of power, and the feeling of being desired.

Selling his body. And what a price that could be put on his youth, his musculature, the dashing personality he’d cultivated in order to distance himself more and more from the failure he’d been as a Huntsman.

No one needed to know the young man who made them feel so good was anything less than the perfect predator he portrayed himself as. Even as his sapphire blue eyes settled across each girl in turn, he could only feel that sinking in his stomach once again just before Ren softly laid a hand upon his shoulder.

“I believe in you.” The other man noted, and Jaune could only let loose a shaky breath.

“What’s up, Jaune?” Ruby asked, softly, fingering the cross that was attached to the collar he’d gotten her. The fidgeting darling, even if it awakened a part of him that was being steadily beat down by his own discomfort.

“I…” What could he even say? How? None of that strength from when he was with clients could be summoned, all that was left was the uncomfortable Jaune that couldn't talk to girls.

The Jaune that had failed. Over and over again.

The Jaune that didn’t have the guts anymore. That felt like he was going to explode into a storm of tears in the next few seconds, let alone minutes.

“What’s up?” Yang asked, lavender eyes half-worried and half-confused.

“I…”

“I’ve been selling myself.”

The next few minutes were foggy, all he could remember was Weiss’ words and the way she’d looked at him with a handful of lien chits.

He hadn’t even seen the way she’d looked helpless and horrified as he left, Scroll in hand.

“Is this what Pyrrha saw in you? Is this all you care about?”

He just remembered walking, setting up the next appointment.

+x+x+x+x+x+

_ Never need a bitch, I’m what a bitch needs- _

  
  


_ She's wrong. _ He thinks it vehemently. Venom coursing through his every thought. 

"A-ahh- h-haaaa- annn-nnraa-"

_ She's wrong. _ It's a poison that winds through his veins, disgusting and powerful with its simplicity. Making every night worse than the last. Every client is even more faceless than before.

"Oh- nn- aa- so- so rough-" Every night in the hotel is more and more stifling, more and more lonely. Every second reminds him more, every time he sees the pay out, or he takes the lien chits in his hands- And he throws them mindlessly unto the desk near the bed. And everything  _ hurts. _ Nothing soothes the ache, the pain- its at it's all time worst. All he can do is sob, wondering why it is that he's falling apart so completely.

  
  


Hadn't he settled himself with the idea that he and Weiss were friends of convenience at best? Then why did her words  _ Hurt _ so much? Why did it feel like the only thing that made it better was not thinking about it? Why did he feel like the only better option- "Oh gods- oh gods- oh gods-” -was to  _ die? _ That the only relief from it was complete and utter inability to feel.

_ Why was he doing any of this? _ The question always came back to Why. Why try. Why put one foot in front of the other? It was never about the money. He'd come to realize that. The money was nice, but he only ever spent it on the others, never on himself. A few changes of clothes didn't count as  _ spending money. _

  
  


_ Why. _

The girl beneath him was petite, and cute. She’d have been his type before, but right then he didn’t care.

Not as long as it made him feel better. Not as long as she looked up at him like he was her God with every time his hips pummelled into her’s. The bruises, the dripping of those soft blue eyes and the curtain of her gray hair all across the bedsheets.

And that only made him angrier- made him more purposeful with each swing of his hips.

It’d been stunned silence, then it’d been screaming. He hadn’t even taken part after that, he’d retreated into his own world just before he’d pulled on his coat, packed his things, and walked out of his sister’s house.

He couldn’t remember any of his clients, but he’d apparently worked four or five just over the two days he’d been staying in a hotel instead of coming back to Saphron’s.

The heaviness of his pockets and the numbers in his bank account attested to it.

_ Sellin’ dreams to these girls with they guard down- _

He looked at the review from the girl after she left, laughing himself sick when he saw how it glowed. How she loved what he’d done to her.

Even though what he’d done to her might as well have been a crime. She’d barely walked out of the hotel.

He just remembered the hangovers, waking up in an uncomfortable bed that was so much nicer than his sister’s guest room bed, but just offered him not an ounce of comfort.

He’d shower, check his Scroll- see a new set of messages from Ren and Nora, and then set up another client.

He needed the power. The control. He needed something to take his mind off that image.

That thought of Pyrrha looking at him like he’d failed her-  **again.**

It was all he could do to not feel sick.

  
  


+x+x+x+x+x+x+x

  
  
  


“Where is Jaune?” Ruby hated it the most when Saphron looked at them with those accusing eyes, like it was their fault her brother hadn’t been home.

Probably because it did feel like it was their fault. They were stuck in a rut, and that only made it worse. None of them could come up with a way to get to Atlas, and that was only partially why she felt Jaune’s absence more immensely than usual.

Jaune was the one who was good with these kinds of things. He always had some answer to the issue, and that only made the hole in her chest feel so much bigger.

“I don’t know.” It was the only thing she could ever say, and it never made Saphron feel better- and Ruby could understand. Saphron was his big sister, and she cared about him a whole lot.

What could she tell his sister? When Weiss was locked away in his room, crying herself sick. When Yang had looked ready to fight after he’d left. When Ren and Nora had shut themselves up and seemed to draw in together with nothing to say to anyone? When even Blake had looked to her in askance, as if Ruby knew how to fix the gaping hole that’d been made in the team by a few thoughtless words?

It’d been two days, and the only ones who’d been able to reach out to him were Ren and Nora- and even they’d shook their heads sadly when she asked if he’d responded to them.

Ruby felt like a terrible friend, as she fingered the cross on her choker.

She’d known how long Jaune had been suffering quietly for the rest of them, ever since Beacon fell, but she hadn’t thought it’d been that bad. It’d looked like he’d started to recover, and then suddenly- with the reveal of what he’d been doing- she started to understand.

He’d never been fixed. Only adapting to how broken he was.

“We should go look for him.” Yang muttered to her, and she agreed, but she could only think-

“Where would we look for him? We don’t know where he’d go.” And that thought had put a hurt look across her sister’s face, and so Ruby could only mirror it.

She felt like a terrible friend, as she passed the room and heard the soft sounds of Weiss in Jaune’s room, sobbing out an apology.

+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+

  
  


Jaune found himself at a diner, his working clothes fitting him so well, but feeling way too heavy for him as he looked at the remnants of a heavily sugared coffee. His glove-clad fingers gently cradled the handle for the cup as he finished the last gulp of the drink to put some warmth back in his bones, even if he felt as cold as could be.

The waitress offered him a light smile, and he returned it, feeling like glass on the inside.

As pretty as could be, but so fragile if you breathed on it, it’d fall apart.

His hand pulled his Scroll from his pocket, and he accepted the next client’s appointment.


	5. Ashes

**AN:** Can you guys tell I love Caleb Hyles? Because his version of this song is the one I was listening to while writing this.

**Dirty Money**

**Chapter Four**

**Ashes**

  
  


_ What’s left to say, these prayers ain’t working anymore- _

  
  


He found himself at her memorial again. Why, he didn’t remember, but it was where he ended up. What malign self-destructive urge had brought him to look upon her face again. To feel like that face in stone was staring down at him in disappointment.

His hands tightened into fists inside the pockets of his coat.

The thought alone was enough to make him physically ill. It took all he had just to keep the bile down in his stomach, and even still it took him to his knees.

It was the kind of drama-heavy moment he’d seen in movies countless times, called it weepy and overstated, but here he was, living it. Feeling it. Wishing he didn’t feel so miserable with every passing second.

He felt bad for talking shit about every romance and drama protagonist ever for acting like such babies. Privately, he swore he’d never do it again.

Jaune’s eyes rose, seeing the dying poinsettias upon the base of Pyrrha’s monument and he could only wonder if her mother had been by since he’d seen her almost a week ago.

Maybe she had, maybe he was the one actively doing a disservice to her memory. How many of his clients had been people who had been sad to hear of Pyrrha’s passing?

How many would have been amazed to know they’d had something their hero had never gotten?

And despite himself, he started to laugh as tears ran down his face. “Gods, I’m so sorry, Pyrrha. I’m so… fucking… sorry…”

  
  


+x+x+x+x+x+x+

  
  


“No change, huh?” Ruby asked, and Blake could only shake her head from her position posted up by the door to Jaune’s room. Weiss ate and showered, but that was about all that would come from the white-haired girl.

For once, Blake could only look on from the outside as she saw her friends steadily falling apart without someone she’d never paid much attention to.

Jaune was a firm support for both RWBY and JNPR, and it was only now that she was able to recognize that. See the way Ruby looked listless, helpless, as if she didn’t know what to do when she couldn’t coordinate some big team attack against their foe. The way Ruby’s own sadness was mirrored by Yang, and only made worse by the fact that Yang’s nature as a big sister made her want to fix everything- but had no way to do so.

She’d been the one who ran away when Weiss had said something more quickly than her heart could stamp down the resistance. And now it seemed that Weiss was reliving that moment, but in a much more severe fashion.

Blake had simply run away, if only to prove her innocence- that she had changed. No one knew where Jaune was- what he was doing. Only that he hadn’t left Argus- that was their only lead. Ren had been anything but forthcoming with anything he might have thought, and Nora was no help in the matter either.

The team had fractured all over a few hurtful words said at the worst possible time. And it made her just as skittish as the others.

Blake saw it for what it was. Ren and Nora closing ranks against RWBY- seeing the betrayal as complete, and she couldn’t blame them for that.

_ “Is this what Pyrrha died for?!” Weiss’ fist was full of lien chits, and she remembered seeing the tears threatening to spill in the girl’s eyes- just before she’d looked horrified by what she’d said. _

__ _ But it was already too late, and Jaune had walked out with his pack and his Scroll in his hand. _

It’d been an ugly sight. She wasn’t sure who blamed whom the most, but she knew it was no good in general. Weiss was trapped in self-loathing and apologies, Ren and Nora had shut themselves away to try and preserve what little remained of their fragmented and tortured family, Ruby meandered about with no idea of how to move on, Yang tried to help her sister, and Blake got to see it all from the outside.

Got to watch the world fall apart because Jaune was making a mistake that she’d made- and this time, she couldn’t figure out how to fix it either without finding him.

And there was only one person in the house willing to talk to them and who might have an idea where he’d be. As she moved back downstairs, she saw her fretting over her Scroll at the table.

“Saphron.” She noted, gently, drawing the woman’s blue eyes unto her. “I need your help.”

  
  


+x+x+x+x+x+x+

  
  


It seemed so stupid of them all to have missed such a thing- or maybe none of them had cared enough to remember?

That thought hurt more than Blake would care to admit as she found herself looking at Pyrrha’s memorial, the statue capturing a great deal of her grace- but none of the warmth Blake chose to remember about the woman who’d given up her very life.

Of course Argus, being the home of Sanctum, would remember her. And only Jaune and his team would ever have cared to find out that they had a memorial to her. As if she hadn’t been Team RWBY’s friend just the same as the rest.

Her gaze lilted down upon the form huddled in front of the statue, looking like a collapsed castle thrown over with finery to make it look more appeasing. But she knew better, the brickwork was gone- destroyed.

Jaune Arc would never be the same, even as she quietly stepped up behind him and heard the sobs that punctuated the cold of the night. How long had he been here, she wondered? Probably not overnight, since he still looked kempt and sensible.

Probably staying somewhere else. A hotel, if she were to make a guess, but that said nothing with how large Argus was.

But this just made sense, finding him here, as if begging for forgiveness from her. She hadn’t been there, but she’d gotten the story from Ruby in one of those excited tales of what had happened that she’d missed since the Fall- everything dying down to a quiet and mournful display of events.

Ruby had seen Pyrrha die, and she couldn’t even tell Jaune in person due to the coma she’d fallen into.

Blake had ran away from that, too. Who had been there to help Jaune, then? Ren and Nora? They’d probably only been able to rely on one another.

Jaune had no one- and he’d been a better person than she’d ever been, willing to stand and put foot after foot in front of the other to help Ruby.

But he’d been falling apart since, and this was just the end of that long road, her amber gaze settled on what was left of the man as he knelt there. No smile, no laugh, no smarmy remark, just a bundle of tears and broken pieces held in a Huntsman’s shape.

Her eyes went back up unto Pyrrha’s downtrodden face, and she wondered what he saw there. Pain? Disappointment? Hope? Blame?

If it had been her, it would have been too much for her to be here, seeing that face looking at her. And that thought put the perfect image in her head. Yang being in that place, with her left in Jaune’s.

So she did something she didn’t think she’d ever do, and knelt next to him and pulled him into a hug. He was dead weight against her, but it was the only thing she could think of at the time.

As she dug her scroll out of her jacket and sent a message to Ruby, her ears perked as his lips parted and he whispered, “I’m so sorry, Pyrrha…”

Inside, a part of her heart broke for him, and she held onto him tightly as his face buried into her shoulder. Her eyes moved past him up unto the face of their fallen friend, and she wondered aloud, “You were the only one holding him up, too, weren’t you..?”

She felt it was only poetic that the wind whispering through the trees answered her, and she struggled to stand with him. Her mind finished the thought for her,  _ He took up the mantle, and now here we are, the ones on top of the pedestal, huh? _

“Blake..?” He murmured, looking at her through a set of red-ringed and tear-filled eyes, and she could only nod in return.

“Yeah. You gonna walk, or am I going to have to try and carry you?” She meant it to sound more sarcastic, but it came out as sincere as she feared the question was.

“I…” He struggled, retching for a moment, and she was almost ready to drop him before he seemed to get it under control and he stood under his own power, looking a mess despite how obviously he’d worn those clothes to appeal to people. The fact he’d been prostituting himself was only a meagre surprise to her, she’d known that he’d been doing something he wasn’t proud of- just from the way he’d acted and snuck about- but she’d never have imagined Jaune Arc to whore himself to make ends meet.

Which was probably why it had been such a shock to everyone else- not to mention none of them had ever paid him any mind. Ruby had told them of his sleepless nights training, but even she’d seemed helpless on what to do about it.

So they’d just ignored it, hadn’t they? What friends they were.

“Come back.” She noted, softly, hating the way she sounded so weak. Like his own state was infecting her.

“I- I can’t.” He whispered in return, and Blake hated that she had no way to fight that. Knowing in her heart that nothing she said would fix all of this, but knowing she had to try anyway.

“Weiss didn’t-”

“OF COURSE SHE DID!” For the first time since she’d seen him get angry at Oscar- well, Ozpin, really- she saw him infuriated. “Of course she meant it, Blake.” Jaune murmured, the heat draining from his face almost as fast as it came. “It’s the truth, after all. She wouldn’t have said it if it wasn’t.”

The Faunus could only feel her ears pin back, her gaze drop as his head hung and his hands fisted at his side. She wanted to say something- anything- but nothing came to mind. She’d never been good at talking with others, let alone when emotional topics came up. She’d spent her whole life running away from the truth, from things that were difficult. And yet here she was, staring something even more complicated in the face.

“What did Pyrrha die for..? Nothing… not a damn thing. I wanted to blame Ozpin, but… all I can do is blame myself… I wasn’t strong enough, I wasn’t smart enough. She was a hero, and I’m- I’m just dead weight…”

“Jaune-”

“I don’t care.” The response was so immediate and vehement, it quashed any desire for her to speak- not that she wanted to in the first place. She would have done anything else if it didn’t feel like she was the only one in a position to do anything about it. “Just… go on without me. Ren and Nora- they can help. I’m just… I’m just dragging you guys down.”

That was true at the moment, but she knew it wasn’t normally. Even she knew just how much even Ruby relied on Jaune to push forward- he’d been the first to leap to help her after the Fall- to do the right thing. And now he was being stared in the face by the thought that he wasn’t valued- that no one cared.

And maybe they hadn’t. And that thought scared Blake more than she’d care to admit, especially with all that she’d done to make things right between herself and her Team. Maybe they were all hanging on a cliff and only that danger kept them together.

Blake was a coward, and she had acknowledged it- trying to make it better. Was that what Jaune had faced every waking moment since Beacon? Facing his own weakness and struggling forward? Even after Pyrrha had left him alone?

She hoped Ren and Nora had done better than she and her Team had. “Jaune…” When he seemed defeated and not willing to interrupt her again, she gained some confidence back, “We can’t do this without you.” She meant every word, even as his head raised and those blue eyes looked at her in return, “We  **all need you.** ” She stressed it as much as she could.

Not Ruby, not Ren and Nora-

All of them. They’d fall apart without Jaune around, this was a group effort. Losing one more friend would break them  **all.** Blake knew that, now.

And it seemed that for once, she was going to have to be the one who kept things together. Before he could open his mouth to retort, she squeezed in and hugged him once again, a stray thought of how silly it was to be wearing high heels and not even reach his chin.

Gods he was so tall, and yet she couldn’t help but feel he was so small just then.

“I know it hurts, I know it’s hard…” She whispered, “I know we’ve not been the best friends, but you don’t have to deal with this alone. You never have to.”

She paid no attention to the tone of her Scroll as Jaune’s arms nervously wrapped around her middle, and he took a deep sobbing breath of her hair which tickled her feline ears.

“Please let us help…”


	6. Turn Down The Lights

**AN:** Teddy Swim’s cover of Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved”- then indulge in Teddy’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”.

**Dirty Money**

**Chapter Five**

**Turn Down The Lights**

  
  
  


He was heavy. So heavy, and that made her realize just how much effort he’d put into himself since they’d started Beacon. She could remember a time when she’d been able to sling him around the combat class arena on her own, and now she could barely handle him leaning on her.   
  
Nora’s bragging about his new title as ‘Mister Muscles’ seemed altogether too real when she could actually feel just how much of him was meat instead of lean form like she remembered from Beacon. Blake let a sigh pass from her lips that misted in the chilly air as they took step after step back towards Saphron’s house.

“Where are we going?” Jaune asked, and she shook her head.

“Back to your sister’s…” And then he planted his feet, and she couldn’t move him at all. The Faunus turning her gaze unto him again as his head slowly rose from where he’d been blankly staring at the pavement as they passed. Her attention shifting up unto his face as his blue eyes stared at her own in turn.   
  
“No, Blake.”

“Jaune- let us help you.”

“Listen-” His gaze shifted to the side, and it was the first time he’d looked so vulnerable without being a lump on the ground, “I’m… glad you want to help. But, I’m not ready to go back to Saphron’s. I’m just going to get yelled at over and over, and…”

“That’s… what our friends do, yeah.” Blake admitted, “And your sister, too.”

“Right. Which is why I’m really… not cool with going back.”

Blake’s amber eyes settled onto his face, and saw the way his own red-ringed blues looked back at her. “Then what do you want to do, Jaune?” She asked, raising a hand when he started to say, “And I’m not going away.” Even if she wasn’t sure what to do, she’d try.

Gods, even if she wanted to run. Wanted to not be around for this. To see someone who was better than her struggle, hurt, and  **crash.** Because that was the only way she could think to define it. Some of Beacon’s classes had to do with psychology- to dealing with stress and trauma from their profession. It had always been strange to hear Goodwitch talk about it in that severe tone of hers- but now it made all the more sense with how they were.

With all that they’d dealt with. For the life of her, Blake couldn’t remember a word of any of those classes, unfortunately. Maybe no one on their team- save maybe Weiss- could. And Weiss was on the other end of this battle of souls.

So that left Blake, and Jaune. A hard target, some explosives, and Blake would be okay-

But the bunker that was Jaune Arc wasn’t something you could blast open and ransack for the Fang.

“I can’t go back.” Jaune uttered, softly- so softly that it was only because of her extra-sensitive hearing that she DID hear it. She felt the way her ears pinned back against her head.

“Then, I’m going with you.” Blake said, with purpose.

  
  


x+x+x+x+x+x+x

  
  
  


_ I’m goin’ under and this time I fear there’s no one to save me- _

  
  


Every time he glanced at his Scroll, she worried more and more. Soon enough, she had to take it from him and put it in her own jacket’s pocket. She’d have normally loved to describe the look he’d given her as petulant, but instead he seemed to just- shut down. Blue eyes staring blankly ahead, the taxi carrying them to one of the nicer hotels in the city- though not one that she would have expected Jaune would have been willing to hole up in. As they pulled up to the arrivals, Jaune slid a lien chit to the driver and wished her well before slipping from the taxi. She got out alongside him, and fell into step behind him.

Rather than anything else, she took note of how many of the hotel staff looked at  **her.** They all ignored Jaune, and part of her wondered if it was because of her ears.

But then they stepped into the elevator and a bus boy- with a very fetching tiger-striped tail- stared at her with what looked like incredulousness before seeming to think better of it and simply stepped off when they arrived on a floor that wasn’t the one Jaune had pressed.

She mentally calculated the time it took to arrive at the fourteenth floor- two floors below the suites according to the elevator display. All the while, her gaze drifted unto and then away from Jaune. He offered her a smile- brittle but handsome- and she couldn’t help but ask.

“Why-?”

“Are the staff looking at you? Because they know what I’m doing, but they ignore it. It’s not their business, it doesn’t affect them, so they stay quiet. Some people grease wheels, but most of the time, as long as you don’t act like anything is wrong, people don’t want to rock the boat.”

“But… why me?”

Jaune shrugged a shoulder, that brittle smile still on his face. “Because, you’re young and beautiful. Why would you pay anyone for sex? Sounds stupid, doesn’t it? You know how many clients I have that are ‘beautiful, too good to pay for sex’?”

Blake didn’t know, so she simply shook her head rather than guess.

“All of them. Being beautiful- being handsome- it makes you paranoid. It makes you mistrustful. Right?” Jaune’s brittle smile turned into a flirtatious smirk which-

Part of Blake hated how it made her cheeks flush.

As they stepped off of the elevator, Jaune hooked a left and she followed him along the hallway to a room where he lifted one of his coat pockets- the door beeping before sliding open as he stepped through and she followed.

As expected, it was a nicer room. A mini-bar that had obviously been raided at some point by the fact there were two empty bottles sat atop it with a couple of glasses. His coat was hefted up and put onto a rack by the door, leaving him in just a button-up shirt and vest alongside his pants and boots, before he gestured inside. “Make yourself at home.” He said, a touch of wryness in his tone.

The Faunus shucked her own jacket, putting it up next to his, before letting her eyes settle onto him as he moved to the mini-bar and pulled a bottle of what looked to be whiskey of some kind. His blue eyes settled on her, gesturing at the other glass with a tilt of one brow.

Despite herself, she nodded, and he poured a small amount of the drink into the extra glass before offering it to her. She took it and watched as he moved to settle unto the edge of the bed, swirling his own glass under his nose and taking a deep breath of the liquor within. “People want to ignore things that are difficult,” The blonde noted before taking a drink of the amber-colored liquor and letting a shudder race through his form. “That bus-boy will think to himself, “She’s beautiful. She could have any man she wanted.” And you know what I say to that?”

Swept up in his rhythm, Blake moved to sit next to him and turned a confused look onto him as she sniffed the alcohol in her glass, noting just how -powerfully- it stank.

“She could. But she doesn’t want any man. She wants someone who will care about her. Someone who will make her feel like the Queen of Remnant.” Just before that drink came up to his lips again, Jaune was smiling- sadly, almost.

Quietly, Blake took a drink of the whiskey in her glass, knowing her face scrunched up and her ears pinned back again at the powerful taste of charred wood and what she swore to be a hint of cherry- especially when Jaune let out a soft little laugh. She gave him a reproachful look, but he just seemed to turn his head and hid his smirk behind his glass again.

Even while he looked away from her, she heard him speak again, “She wants someone she has control over. Someone she knows- as long as the money is good- he’ll do whatever she asks. She wants proof- proof that she’s beautiful, that she’s powerful. As much as it is about sex, sex is never just sex. It’s how sex makes you feel.”

The romantic in Blake died a little bit. Part of her wanted to argue the point, to insist, but…

She couldn’t think of how. Couldn’t think of the words- the thing to say to prove that romance was real. That there was more to it than what Jaune seemed to think.

But the cynic in Blake believed him- thought he was right. And that only made his words sting more. She leaned over, taking a drink from her glass as her head rested against his shoulder. She almost leapt out of her skin when his arm wrapped around her, so quickly it was probably instinctive.

“You don’t believe in love anymore.” Blake whispered, and that thought hurt her a lot more than she thought it would.

“Oh, I believe in love.” Jaune insisted, his gaze fixed on a point on the wall across from the bed. She knew he was able to see how her eyes had turned onto his face, but he wasn’t looking at her- or anything. She already knew. He was looking somewhere else. The same way so many others had looked before.

“I just don’t think there’s anyone who will ever love me.”

Blake wondered when that had happened, and she wished- deep in her heart- that it was a feeling she could help with. But she knew it wasn’t something that could be fixed by anyone else. Only Jaune could learn to forgive himself- to love himself again.

And some people never did. The Gods knew she felt that way all the time.

Every life she touched only ever seemed to cause pain, and that made her more and more disconnected. RWBY had forgiven her, but every time she looked at Yang- saw her prosthetic arm- Blake’s guilt came back in a wash.

Blake finished her glass, putting it aside on the bedside table as she realized how the burn in her chest was affecting her. She’d had a drink or two in her time, but the simple fact was that she wasn’t a drinker by nature.

And Jaune’s tastes apparently leaned quite heavily in comparison with her own.

He polished off his own deeper glass and passed it along to her with his free hand. She set it down next to her own, feeling something burning in her and yet so empty on the inside.

_ Turn down the lights, turn down the pain, turn down these voices- inside my head- _

His lips tasted of liquor and salt. She wasn’t sure which of them was crying- but it felt like the both of them. It was stupid, but…

Part of her didn’t want to let him think that there was no one in the world who could care about him now that Pyrrha was gone. So many people cared about him, and it was sad that she had to do something like this to make it come across.

His arm around her was joined by the other, while her legs trapped his own under her. Under her rump, she felt him respond, even while his eyes closed and her own did the same after noting that they were indeed- both crying.

Nearby she heard her Scroll go off again.

His hands tickled under the bottom of her strapped top, the callouses and scars covering his fingers feeling so different from the softness of the rest of his hands. She ignored the sound of her Scroll ringing with Ruby’s tone, while her hands pressed into his shoulders and made him lay back.

As the kiss was broken, blue opened and looked into her own gold, and in his eyes she saw that, if only for the moment, he was looking  **at her.**

Every single moment passed with what could only be felt as a soft, shuddering heartbeat. Weak and unprotected as she pulled up her top and tugged it off along with her bra. The blonde man’s lips curled up sadly, cheeks streaked with tears even as his hands came up her stomach- passing over the scar on her hip as if it didn’t exist in the first place.

He was right about one thing at least- some people really did just want the control. Want to feel valued- like they were worth something.

She was one of them.

Slowly, steadily, her fingers unfastened each of the buttons on his shirt while Jaune’s hands raked his thumbs along her sides- threatening to make her giggle.

“Blake.” He whispered, and just hearing her name made her eyes close.

“I’m sorry.” She uttered, and lowered herself down to kiss him again. Pouty lips pressing against his own surprisingly soft ones.

“I forgive you.” He whispered, and it was the last thing she said as they both became naked.

As they bore their souls to one another. Blake wished it was poetic, beautiful-

But it was anything but. Only ugly, hurting comfort.

And that was fine.


	7. New Person, Same Old Mistakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AN: Bit less R&B today, New Person, Same Old Mistakes by Tame Impala. Sorry about all the delays in posting chapters and the like, haven’t had much in the way of muse for writing- and I’ve been dealing with a hell of a lot of terrible shit since March, so I’ve been struggling to survive.

**Dirty Money**

**Chapter Six**

**New Person, Same Mistakes**

  
  
  


A shuffle answered his return to wakefulness, his eyes opening blearily as a soft pulse in his head reminded him that he really did need to drink more water when he drank. It wasn’t a hangover- at least not one like he’d always thought of them- but it was more than he wanted to deal with in the morning. His gaze swept low unto Blake’s mane of black hair and those feline ears flicking with her breath.

As he went to sit up and extract himself from the Faunus woman’s arms, he blinked as her hands firmed on him and pressed him back down into the bed.

“Good morning, Blake.” He uttered, throat tight and thirsty. Her head shifted, amber eyes looking up at him in turn with a light in them that made him wonder how anyone could ever look her in the eyes without being mesmerized.

“Jaune-” Her morning breath was devastating- but Gods if he was going to say that to her face. His was probably no better, if he was honest. “Come back. Today.”

The look she gave him was as intense as she could probably offer while looking like she did- no, that wasn’t fair. She looked wonderful- majestic. Like a goddess, and that was only him being fair. Hair all tousled, covered in marks and naked without shame.

Despite himself and the turmoil in him, he couldn’t help but smile. “What are you smiling at?” She asked, and he rolled a shoulder in a shrug.

“Dreams can come true, I guess?” She slapped and clawed at his chest as he broke into a laugh, half delirious from just waking up and the fact he knew he wouldn’t be able to deny her this time.

It just wasn’t in him.

  
  


+x+x+x+x+x+

  
  


_ I can just hear them now- _

_ How could you let us down? _

_ But they don’t know what I found- _

_ Or see it from this way round- _

  
  


After they both showered and he checked out of the hotel, he stood next to the Faunus while she was on the Scroll with Ruby, hearing perhaps one of the most amusing things he never thought he’d hear.

Ruby Rose pouting and scolding Blake for not returning her messages or calls last night. While he’d heard stories about how Yang had been the one to raise her, he found that Ruby tended to have some mothering tendencies herself when it came down to it. Still, Blake said they were en route back to Saphron’s, and he got the feeling that he was still going to be due for that yelling.

Inwardly, he sighed. Putting his hands back into his coat’s pockets, he let his eyes turn over onto the view over the bay as the Faunus finished up her conversation with their friend.

“She’s upset.” Jaune let his eyes shift unto the Faunus, seeing her lips curl into a frown before he pulled his hands from his pockets to raise them in surrender. “I’m- just trying to play it off a bit.”

“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you.” Blake noted in return, her feline ears flicking with an air almost like a pout coming off of her. It was adorable, if he was honest. He shifted his hand, pulling his Scroll out of his coat pocket and checking it. Yep. More messages from Ren and Nora- and now some from Ruby as well.   
  
If he’d given his number to Saphron, he’s sure it would have been blown up by her, too. Thank the Gods he’d been careful not to hand the ID out to her.

When he saw Blake’s eyes settle onto him, he let out his own sigh and put the electronic back in his coat. “What, Blake?”

“How long have you been doing this, Jaune?” The question actually caught him off guard, making his gaze turn away from her and unto the street as they waited for the taxi to take them back to Saphron’s.

“Just before we got on the boat to Anima. A year or so, I guess.” The disgruntled noise that came from her made his shoulders curl up in a shrug.

“And… none of us noticed.” Blake’s voice was soft, and he could only let out another sigh in return. “Why?”

“Lots of reasons.” He wasn’t going to lie about it- but he didn’t feel like talking about it, even though it wasn’t quite a secret now.

“Try me, Jaune. I’m the only one who’s here and listening, aren’t I?” Those words almost made him laugh, but... It was the truth, wasn’t it? The more he thought about it, the more his shoulders slumped and he lost the self-assured stance he’d attached to his ‘work’ mindset.

As the cab pulled up, they piled into the back. Jaune let loose a long sigh. They piled into the vehicle, and he rattled off Saphron’s address. As they pulled back away from the curb, Blake’s eyes turned onto him again and he acquiesced.

“There’s too much going on right now.” Jaune admitted, “With… the mission, and everything. It only makes sense that no one wants to think about something else going wrong.”

“That’s true-” The dark-haired Faunus responded, though the glower in her face persisted, “-but it doesn’t explain why.”

“Because it made me feel powerful.” Jaune spoke before he could even think about it- realizing when Blake flinched that he’d come off perhaps a bit snappish. “Sorry.” After a few moments of silence, he let out a breath and continued, “There’s… lots of power in it. You see someone look at you like you’re their God. Another takes the control, and makes you feel like everything is going to be just fine. Of course, there’s the… physical benefits.” He was careful to censor himself- no reason to bother the driver with the nitty gritty.

Argus passed by slowly, traffic was light in the morning, but that only made him aware how quickly they were arriving at his sister’s house. “... Because it made you feel powerful, huh.” Blake uttered after a few moments, and he nodded in return.

“We’re stuck where we are,” Jaune reached up to brush blonde hair out of his face, “Dealing with all this. Powerless, just swept up in the current. Y’know?”

“You didn’t always feel that way?” Blake asked, the note of curiosity in her tone making him laugh softly. “Don’t laugh at me. Did you ever feel like we had a choice?”

“Once upon a time.” Jaune felt so ironic saying that, even as they pulled up to the curb, and he saw Ruby standing on the steps of Saphron’s house. “It wrong that I wish it’d taken longer?”

“I can circle the block if you like, it’s your lien, buddy.” The Driver remarked, and despite how tempted Jaune was to say yes, Blake was already opening the door. Letting out a sigh, the blonde slipped a chit into the register.

“Thanks for trying.”

  
  
  


_ I feel like a brand new person- _

_ So how will I know that it’s right? _

_ In a new direction- _

_ So how will I know I’ve gone too far? _

  
  
  


The patented Ruby Rose Stare of Disapproval might have cowed him before, but there he was, feeling that it was honestly fairly adorable that she was trying so hard. The Faunus was looking away from her Team Leader, so Jaune was the only one meeting her gaze.

That honestly only made him have to fight to keep a smile off his face.

“I’m very disappointed in the both of you.” That line alone made him fail, knowing he was cracking a smirk when Ruby glowered at him. “It’s not funny, Jaune!”

“It’s a little funny-”

“IT’S NOT FUNNY, JAUNE.” The Rose insisted, and he did his best to try to mellow back out. “Weiss has been stuck in your room and-”

Quietly, Jaune tuned the rest of those words out. He moved past Ruby- missing how the younger woman reached out towards him but was stopped by Blake’s hand in turn. He hung his coat up, noting Saphron standing in the kitchen nearby with Adrian on a hip. Blue eyes they shared, stared at one another for a moment, until his sister shook her head quietly.

With a nod, he murmured, “You really do know me better than everyone else.”

“I’m your sister.” Saphron responded, “If I didn’t, what would that say about us?”

“That you’re a terrible person who dressed her little brother in a ball-gown and put his hair in pigtails?”

Answered with a snort, Jaune’s lips curled into a smile made of glass. “Why are you always causing trouble? You know that was my job, right?”

“I thought it was genetic.” Jaune noted, no small amount of sarcasm in his tone, which earned a pointed spatula, he raised his hands in mock-surrender.

“Where were you?”

“A hotel. Didn’t want to put up with the others.” Close enough to the truth, far enough away from being a lie.

“And you expect me to believe that?” His sister remarked, a storm brewing in blue eyes that he knew looked just like his own.

“It’s the truth, so you’re gonna have to, Saph.” Jaune mused.

“You had another fight.” She accused, and he paused in the step he was taking further into the house. “You’re always fighting, Jaune. Even at home, you just weren’t happy.”

He felt it roiling in his chest, his stomach dropping from his gut as his feet froze to the floor. His head turning towards her as he saw that she’d given up on staring at him- instead tending to what was likely lunch for her and Terra.

“When are you going to be happy, Jaune?”

Despite a very real desire to spit “Never” out at her, he remained quiet. The silence stretched, and he moved to the staircase. Every footfall felt heavier than the last, and the sound of his boots against the wood sounded louder and louder. Out of the corner of his eyes, he spied Yang posted seated against the door to where RWBY had been sleeping. Lilac eyes regarded him, and he gave his fellow blonde a brittle smile.

“Can you get her out of there?” Yang asked- and it was a genuine, gentle question compared to what he expected to come out of her mouth. He knew Yang well enough to know how her temper took hold of her at incredible times. Inside, though, he also knew she was just as brittle as the rest of them.

“I don’t know,” He admitted, “I’m still angry.”

“And people say I hold grudges.” The brawler murmured, trying to make light of the situation- and he wished he could say it worked. He reached down, offering her an arm up. As she pulled herself up onto her feet by his arm, he raised a brow when she leaned in. “Jaune… no matter what, you’re our friend. You stood by Ruby, and I know none of this is easy. Trust me, I hate this as much as you do.”

He doubted that, but he definitely thought she was close. “I know. Thanks, Yang.”

“Now, go pull the Princess out of the castle, would’ja? I’m sick of her bein’ a drama queen.” That, however, did earn a snicker from him. As Yang moved back into the bedroom she’d sat in front of, he spied black and red inside, but moved towards the room he’d taken for himself.

He didn’t want to do this. Never did. Never would. But here he always seemed to wind up. Confronting things he didn’t want to- angry, scared. It reminded him of home, and why he’d run away in the first place.

His self-esteem had always been low, even before Beacon.

And how queer it was, to look at a door and feel like it was scarier than a Grimm.


	8. Rock + Roll

**AN:** EDEN’s Rock + Roll for today’s chapter.

  
  


**Dirty Money**

**Chapter Seven**

**Rock n’ Roll**

  
  


It took something special, he always knew that. To be someone like all of his friends. He’d always thought that, even as far back as Beacon. So seeing Weiss as she was, sat on the bed he’d slept on, lips cut in a frown-

It cut him just as deeply as any Grimm ever could have.

Facing his own mistakes always seemed the hardest, even before he’d left home, all he ever seemed to do was mess up. Not be good enough- maybe that was all in his head, but it never did seem to stop.

Blue touched blue, and he sat down next to Weiss, accepting when she said nothing. For a minute, it dragged on- and he wondered if it was uncomfortable, being so quiet with her. He didn’t think it was, which was weird.

Why did it always feel like quiet could be so many different things, when he knew just how often the quiet could be so deafening? He hated how that thought made him smile.

_ So I got ten minutes to be all or nothing to _

_ Whoever wants to hear _

_ And I got ten weeks of talking bullshit on repeat 'till I'm burnt out and disappear _

_ But I owe you nothing _

_ And I own my luck  _

“I miss her, too.” Weiss’ voice, soft and as beautiful as he’d always thought it was, filled the air finally. He knitted his hands together, hearing the pops of his knuckles like gunshots in the stale air.

“I know.” He said, meaning way more than just two words. No matter how he couldn’t figure out how to say it.

“I never blamed you.” It was weird, to hear her talk so much- they hadn’t talked this much … ever, that he could remember. “But… you always blamed yourself, didn’t you?”

His smile felt so brittle. Even she probably knew that. He choked on words. No matter how he wanted to say anything, he couldn’t. It just… didn’t come out. No matter how badly he wanted to. He’d gotten plenty good at saying things that he didn’t believe in, and yet when he was confronted with his friends he just always kept seeming to go back to that year in Beacon.

_ You always knew how to take my breath away. _ A more confident version of him might have said. Why did the world feel so much more blurry? Salt tasted so bitter.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

_ Bullshit. _

“You couldn’t have done anything.”

_ Because I’m too weak. _

“... I’m sorry, Jaune.”

A breath came from him, and he wasn’t sure how long he’d been holding it in. Nor did he know how it became a sob, or why it made him start to cry.

Jaune didn’t know how they started to hug, or why- even though she was obviously uncomfortable- she let him hold onto her. Even as he buried his face in her shoulder and … just- he just wept.

Or when she started to cry softly, too.

“She was my friend, too…” Weiss uttered, and he squeezed her tighter. For a moment, he just let his walls down and let the storm take him.

“She deserved so much better, Weiss.” He uttered-

“She did-”

“She should be here-”

“She should.”

“I-”

And before he’d even felt it, she’d slapped him. His shock registered long enough for him to think just how beautiful she was when she was so  **real.** Those icy blue eyes, the white of her hair, the rich pink of her face. He’d always called her Angel, but that was only at its most obvious when she had her emotions on her face. “Don’t.” She hissed, and he quieted as her fingers wrenched into his collar, and made him look into her eyes. “Don’t ever say you should’ve taken her place. Don’t ever say that. Don’t think it.”

He swallowed, feeling like that wave of saliva was more syrup than spit.

“She should be here. But not in place of you. That’s not  **right.** ” Even when she was angry, she was always so smart.

He wished that he could hear her. He wished that would make it all  **right** , too.

“Why would you do all this, just to give up?”

_ But I don't wanna lie to tell myself _

_ That I'm more than all the mistakes I've outrun _

“Why keep going, if not because you want to  **live?** Are you going to give up?”

_ Cause I'm only here for a minute _

_ And I don't care what you say 'cause I know _

_ You're only here cause I'm winning  _

“I don’t know.” He finally spoke, phlegm buildup in his throat making his voice throatier than he knew it would otherwise be.

“Do you really not?” Weiss asked, her hands falling away from his clothes, and resting on her own knees as he looked away, too- too ashamed to look at her anymore.

“No. I can’t remember the last time I knew what I was doing.” Jaune uttered.

“Then live.”

_ ‘Cause I ain’t scared of living. _

He drew his eyes onto her, and the face she wore always that dazzled him so. She was always what he wished he could be.

_ And I don’t want your love, _

_ I just wanna feel like I’m still livin’. _

“Because I don’t think any of us know what we’re doing anymore, Jaune.” Weiss could always find a way to make herself sound imperious and wise, even if everyone knew she was talking bullshit.

Including herself. It was a powerful thing, something he wished he could share with her.

“We don’t, do we?” He couldn’t help it. He started to smile.

“Of course not.” Weiss huffed, and his body relaxed.

“I loved her, y’know.”

“I know.”

“I hate that I never got to tell her.”

“We all wanted to tell her. How much she mattered. How important she was.” Weiss uttered, her own eyes moving to the floor in front of her heel-clad feet. “That’s… just what we get left with, I guess.”

“Yeah.”

“That doesn’t mean it isn’t reaching her, somehow, you know?” Jaune wanted to believe that, no matter how his head wanted to hurt- wanted to deny it.

His jaw tightened, and he knew he was about to start crying again. Her arm came around him, and he … as much as he wanted to pull away- he found himself leaning on her, too.

“You’re such an idiot.”

“Ye **p.** ” He couldn’t help it, popping the P just like Ruby and Yang did.

“You had a perfectly good girl who did do everything for you, and you wanted someone else.”

“Yeah.” He knew her too well- she was chastising him just to make him feel better. Which… he hated that it worked.

“And… how does that make you feel?”

“Like an idiot.” Jaune murmured, “Like someone who should have known better.”

The quiet filled the room for a few moments.

“... And I’m still so… so fucking stupid.” When she laughed, he could only put his eyes upon her again. “Because I think I still love you.”

The quiet was deafening, even when her arms pulled him in against her breast and he held one of her wrists as she brushed the other hand through his hair.

“... You’ll always be the bravest of us, won’t you, Jaune?” She asked, softly, and he didn’t find himself thinking so. “But, that’s okay-”

_ The more you know who you are and what you want… _

_ ...the less you let things upset you- _

  
  


“Because I don’t hate that about you.”

He let himself give back into the tears, even as she cradled him. And he wondered how much he’d have to apologize to her when they saw each other again.

If she’d forgive him, and if he could ask her to.

He hoped so.


	9. Let It Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AN: Starset’s “Let It Die”. Super been into them as a band lately, too. Can’t recommend them enough. It’s a perfect song for Jaune talking both about Pyrrha and ‘who he was’.

**Dirty Money**

**Chapter Eight**

Let It Die

  
  


Jaune wished he could say that everything was fine after that little conversation, but there was still lingering feelings there inside of him- likely inside of Weiss, too. But taking a step forward, even when you didn’t want to, was the way he’d dealt with the pain since they’d left Sanus.

It was better, though. And Jaune felt that was enough. As they finally all sat down to talk about what they were going to do moving forward- how they were going to get to Atlas, Jaune found himself pleasantly distracted.

He could handle plans of action- in fact, it was a great way to get his head back in the game. Better than dealing with what he’d done with Ren and Blake- better than thinking about how he still harbored some resentment for Weiss.

Emotions were terrible, ugly things, and he couldn’t help but wonder if time would mend the wound or if they would have to work at it more. For now, though, he could focus- and that was better than not.

They needed transport, and with the embargo and closing off of Atlas, it was going to be difficult enough to get to the city in the clouds without-

Wait.

He almost laughed himself silly when the idea crossed his head.

  
  
  


+x+x+x+x+

  
  


_ I cut you into pieces- _

_ Searching for your imperfections- _

_ I had plans to make you whole- _

He wanted to say all of the struggle to get to Atlas was silly in hindsight, but then that would have discounted being locked up and dealing with what he’d seen in Mantle. Meeting Penny again, the AceOps, then the chance for the first time in a while for them all to just…

Relax. It’d been so long since Jaune could just take a deep breath without feeling like they were on borrowed time. Since he could lose himself in a training fight, rather than practical experience being shoved through his veins with every adrenaline-fueled fight for survival.

Since he’d just gotten to sit and breathe for a bit. As he glanced at his Scroll, he confirmed the receipt on his account and let out a soft laugh as he tucked his jacket up tightly around himself.

Their new gear wasn’t ready yet- wouldn’t be for another week or so- but that didn’t mean he was overly worried about it. He waved his Scroll towards Ren and Nora while they sat, noting, “I’ll be back in the morning.”

Receiving somewhat uncertain looks, he stepped back out into Atlas’ corridors.

_ But all my threads couldn’t stop the bleeding- _

_ There’s nothing left, but I’m not leaving- _

_ When all- _

_ I- _

_ Know- _

_ Is- _

_ You. _

He passed Yang in the corridor, her giving him an unsure look as he slipped out into the courtyard and towards the terminals beyond. For the moment, he could let himself slip into the guise. Live in the shoes of someone who wasn’t fighting for the very fate of the world.

He wasn’t Jaune Arc, stuck in the immortal battle between Ozma and Salem. He was just a hot young body to sell.

As he looked out over the expanse of the buildings of Atlas itself, he found himself lost in thought as the shuttle passed by, tuning out the hourly broadcast that made him wonder just what truly Ironwood thought he was doing by appealing to the masses without putting forth empathy.

_ I’ve been looking for a way to bring you back to life- _

_ And if I could find a way- _

_ I’d bring you back, tonight- _

He shook his head when a vision passed through his head, a whisper in his ear that told him he was just running away again. He didn’t think so.

He was facing it- just a day at a time.

_ I’d make you look- _

_ I’d make you lie- _

_ I’d take the coldness from your eyes- _

_ But you told me- if you love me- _

_ Let it die. _

He barely recognized himself in the mirror anymore.

He had let it slide before, trying not to think about it, but as he looked into the mirrored sheen of the hotel elevator wall, he realized just how truly he couldn’t recognize himself, no matter who he felt he was trying to be.

Today’s client was an older woman, a return to brass tacks in many ways. The hotel was a nicer one, and he had to admit the lady had tastes- expensive ones. A suite below the penthouse floors, and he’d expected her to be some kind of widower.

The body he’d seen was definitely of an older woman. His type, if he was honest. Full breasts, birthing hips, and just a little natural sag that showcased while she took care of herself, she didn’t try to hide behind surgeries and treatments the way some older women did.

_ Room six-oh-nine. _ How silly, he couldn’t help but smile as he made his way down the hall. A few meandering people in suits made it look like a company party had adjourned. As he knocked on the door and it opened, his heart stopped.

_ I’ve been lookin’ for a way to bring you back to life- _

Silver-white hair, a soft set of features worn only slightly with time. A robe open just enough to showcase pale skin, his eyes darted down, taking note of not even a sign of a ring.

_ And if I could find a way- then I would bring you back, tonight- _

She greeted him with a demure nod, and he stepped inside without shame.

  
  


x+x+x+x+x+x

“Nn-mmm-nnhaaaa-” Her voice lilted in the stillness, her taste strong on his lips. Tongue trilling across her sex. She’d wanted to jump right in, but the part of him that still remained couldn’t sit still with the idea of just being the kind to just stick it in and poke until she was satisfied.

He was more of a professional than that. Even if the woman looked so like Weiss and her sister Winter that it hurt his head. Even if he  **knew** , he held true to the word of his rules, even if not the spirit.

This could only be Willow Schnee, after all. Here he was, in a nice hotel in a downtown sector of Atlas, eating the pussy his crush had come out of. Part of him should have felt it strange, but instead, the professional in him only cared about one thing.

Her satisfaction. As his tongue traced over her hood, drawing another stuttering breath out of the white-haired woman. The aching way her fingernails trailed through his blonde hair, the whispered mewls filling his ears as one of his arms slipped from her thigh to dip a pair of calloused digits into her warmth.

She was drenched. He’d had a few women who truly enjoyed themselves before, but she was so rich with nectar that it was a miracle even as he eased a pair of fingers into her it didn’t make a truly erotic  **squelch** as he pushed them in to his knuckles.

“Please-” She whispered, and he hated how it made his knees quake. To hear her beg, and how much he loved it.

How that power and control fed him more than the lien in his account.

How he gathered her thighs into his hands, finding them soft and pliant, how she looked at him like she would die if he kept it up. How his rubber-clad length parted her as easily as a sword could cleave flesh.

_ I’ve been lookin’ for a way to bring you back to life- _

_ And if I could find a way, I’d bring you back tonight- _

Face to face first, looking into her own ice-blue eyes, remembering the face of a girl who still made his heart ache.

_ I’d make you look- _

_ I’d make you lie- _

_ I’d take the coldness from your eyes- _

_ But you told me, if you love me, let it die. _

Then he took her from behind. Each squeeze of her muscles around him reminding him all the more of how powerful he could feel as she let out a soft whimper as he felt her try to crush him inside of her. Try to milk him of his own strength.

The svelte, lovely back sloping down into a firm, lovely rear.

_ And you left me more dead than you’ll ever know- _

_ When you left me- _

_ Alone- _

She asked him to look again into her eyes as they adjourned to the shower, one leg spread spry upwards, his hand gripping in under her knee.

_ I’ve been lookin’ for a way to bring you back to life- _

_ And if I found a way, I’d bring you back tonight- _

_ I’d make you look- I’d make you lie- _

_ I’d take the coldness from your eyes- _

_ But you told me, if you love me- _

_ Let it die- _

_ Let it die- _

_ Let it die- _

Even as he stepped out of the hotel when their two hours were up, he found himself longing for something to push the memory out of his head. A reminder of something Neon from Team FNKI had told him- a little club she loved to frequent on weekends.

As the shuttle took off again, he looked at his reflection in the mirror sheen of the window.

And he wondered just who he was anymore. “Sixth and fourth, please. Get me there in ten minutes, and I’ll tip ten extra.”

He was drunk within thirty minutes. Three glasses had gone, and his fourth was in his hands. The mixture of white cream and coffee liquor making a pleasant numbness in his body as he threw it back and moved out onto the dance floor. A few young women gave him smiles and titters, even as he lost himself in the rhythm.

It was just another night. Another client.

He found that thought comforting, for some reason.


End file.
